My husband and I love watching movies or documentaries about treasure, especially, treasure that has been lost at sea. It is fascinating to see how much effort people put into researching a ship’s history, its voyages, the people on board it and all events surrounding its tragic disappearance at sea. Many spend their entire lives searching for a treasure – perhaps they are just after the feeling of accomplishment. Maybe it is the fame that comes with finding an impossible-to-find treasure! It could also be the monetary aspect of finding a treasure – what kind of money will I get for this treasure and what will I do with it. Whatever the reason might be for pursuing a quest to find a lost treasure, people put their lives and relationships on hold in order to do it, and in many cases, they will never find what they spent their whole life looking for.

I also find it interesting that in many fantasy stories we can find treasure too. Take the world of Middle Earth, for example, where Dwarves dug so deep in the earth that they found so many gems and treasures untold. The mines of Moria and the kingdom of Erebor (The Lonely Mountain) are good examples of places where such treasures were found.

We also can see what happened to those who found such treasures. In the case of Erebor (spoiler alert!) the king was consumed by a sickness of the mind and all he could see was the gold, all he wanted was the gold and it transformed him into a greedy and unkind man. His treasure brought him and his people more sorrow than happiness as the treasure was coveted by a dragon – destruction and death came to that kingdom and survivors were scattered.

What are some of the things people might regard as treasure in real life? Is it the jackpot on Euro Millions? Maybe it is the multi-million-pound mansion, the shiny new Tesla in the garage, the Rolls-Royce, the jaw dropping magnificent Mega-Yacht moored in a Marina somewhere exotic, expensive and nice. For some it will be anything Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Prada, any Picasso and so on. For some their treasure is their fame and reputation. The things people desire the most will be their treasures. Some will spend all their effort in order to find these treasures. 

I know about a treasure which is far greater in value and far more important than any treasure ever found or yet to be found. That treasure is a relationship with the Creator, Mighty Saviour, Ruler of all things – God.

God created all humans in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), and He set eternity
in the hearts of man and only He can fill it (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  He is the only treasure which will satisfy us. All good treasure hunting involves research, adventure, discovery to be made along the way. Tools are needed for the journey and, of course, a map.  

The Bible is the place we need to journey to when it comes to “finding” our relationship with God. In a treasure map the “x” marks the spot where the treasure is hidden. The same can be said of our terrain and our map to finding our most valuable treasure. Jesus marks the spot. It is through Him that we gain access to the Father. Jesus said in John 14:6-7

^“6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus is the only way to the Father. God loves each one of us and He desires to have a relationship with us. Some might find it difficult to have a relationship with an invisible God. The Bible tells us all we need to know about God and as it is stated above in verse 7 of John 14, Jesus said: “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”

In Colossians 1:15-20 Paul gives us a bit more details about Jesus:

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Jesus’s perfect sinless life, His death in our place and his resurrection mark the “x” on our most amazing and interesting treasure map of all time. All we need now is to start our journey and begin to dig. We need to read our Bibles with enthusiasm and dedication in order to discover the gems hidden in each page, between each line and story about our Father God. We must ask the questions in our hearts and look for the answers deep within the sacred lines penned for our benefit, through the work of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing Creator, God and Lord we have! He loves us in this way, that He sent His Son to die for us and to be the way back to a relationship with Him. (John 3:16)

Happy treasure hunting!

God bless.

Photo by Suhash Villuri on Unsplash

 

 

 

It is a new day, a new year and I find myself looking at all my friends post on Facebook, Instagram wishing their loved ones and their friends a happy new year! For a minute or two I think about the year just gone… a mixed feeling floods my heart. It has been a very strange year: hybrid education for the kids for part of the year due to restrictions imposed due to the “pandemic”. My husband working from home all year round, feeling trapped. Challenges at work. Friends drifting apart. Parenting challenges (so many to count). Frustrations. Hopes shattered. Mask wearing. Frustration. At this point you might be feeling sorry for me and thinking I had a terrible year. Or maybe you are thinking about your year and you have the urge to slap me on the face and tell me to get a grip. I realise that so many people have had it much harder than I have.

So, let me tell you last year was also a very blessed one. I have so much to be thankful for. I saw more of my husband this year than ever before. I saw him grow closer to God and be strengthened in his faith every day. I watched him overcome the struggles at work with a noble attitude I wish I could have. I was able to help my kids more with their school work and I could appreciate their struggles as teenagers. We cried and laughed together and many cuddles were given. We have a pet cat and I discovered I am a cat person after all. I had the privilege to learn a new language (well, still working on it) and I read many books which challenged me and helped me to stay focused on what is important and grow closer to Jesus. I had to put all my trust in Him again and again when tested by human failures. I gained so many new friends and strengthened so many older friendships. What an amazing God we have! Even in the midst of the crazy time we are living in and the strange things we have to adjust to, He has time to work in my heart.

God is good always. He is faithful. He is just. He is sovereign and He reigns over all. He never changes and His promises are true. Thank you Lord!

As I look ahead, I cannot stop thinking of the question people will ask me when I return to work in a few days: what is your new years resolution? What is my resolution? There are so many things I need and want to change. Where do I even begin?

Two verses have been coming to my mind lately:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

My desire is to live each day more like Christ. I pray that the Holy Spirit will help me to offer my live as a living sacrifice and that I will be strong to fight the temptations to conform to the pattern of the world, whatever they might be. That my eyes will be focused on Christ. I hope my priority will be to continue to grow in my faith and trust in God. Before you have the urge to stop reading this post of feel physically sick thinking that I am such a righteous-person, super-Christian that knows all the right things to say, let me tell you, that this could not be further than the truth. This is what I desire. It is a prayer because I know how much I will struggle tomorrow to put my phone down and open my Bible to read it. I know how difficult it will be to say no to watching TV to put time aside to finish reading the many books I have started and to work on worshiping the living God with everything I have. I am sure I will be much quicker to frown than to smile at my kids silliness. I am certain that I will be much quicker to criticise than I will be to offer encouragement through my words and deeds. Nevertheless, my heart desires to walk closer to the author of salvation, the giver of life. Oh how I need Thee! I need His help each day, each moment.

Maybe you feel disappointed whilst reading this. I have no big resolution made. All I really want is to continue my journey here, serving God better. I want to continue to stand firm for Jesus. The world is changing all the time and pressures are being made for those who follow Jesus to change along with it. To conform, to be moulded by it and be flexible in our beliefs. To compromise, so everyone is happy. So everyone is pleased. And so on. I guess you can see the picture.

Please Lord, help me to stand firm and be renewed each day by your Spirit and walk closer to you, so my life can bring glory to your Name alone.

So, to all of you, I wish a blessed year, full of opportunities to grow in your journeys of faith standing firm for Jesus.

God bless.

The weather is nice at the moment and I could even dare to say it feels like summer in England – finally. With that and some of the restrictions imposed by the government during the Coronavirus pandemic starting to easy off, many are meeting together to have celebrations. It has been a difficult year for most. Weddings are going ahead with more guests, football matches are happening again, theatres and cinemas are reopening and pubs are once again very noisy places.

We live in a place where there are plenty of pubs around and we see many young people heading out to the pubs on the weekends. We also hear them late at night, and sometimes, very early in the morning coming home having had one too many drinks. Have you ever seen a drunken person trying to speak cohesively? Walk properly? Make sense of their surroundings or situations?

I have never been drunk, but I grew up watching my uncle destroy his life and his family because of alcohol. He was addicted to it. When he was drunk, he lost control over his mind, senses and he was even violent. He couldn’t hold a job and eventually his marriage broke down and he wasn’t allowed to see his children. He was in and out of hospitals and eventually he died of cirrhosis of the liver. He had a sad life and made everyone who knew him very sad as we watched the consequences of his choices unfold in front of us. A drunken person is never alert, never in control of their senses, never ready to speak or think and they are vulnerable to attacks too.

Maybe it is no coincidence that Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1: 13, “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” (NIV) (emphasis mine). I don’t think that Peter’s audience was made up of drunken people. Maybe they had been before they became Christians and could relate. Perhaps they had seen many drunken people around and would be able to understand the choice of words here.

Why should I worry about this as I already mentioned I have never been drunk and I am not about to. As far as I am aware, I am alert most of the time. Why did Peter choose these words? What do they mean?

Lets have a look at the same verse in the King James Version:  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

The first thing worth mentioning is that in Peter’s time the people used to wear very loose and flowing garments, some still wear them to this day. Therefore they had to gird their garment in order to be ready for any kind of exercise. They had to be prepared in case they had to run. Peter’s audience would have understood what he meant. The ESV translation puts it this way: preparing your minds for action. Perhaps we need to search our hearts and see if we are “securing” the things we believe tightly around us. Are we holding on to the truth that has set us free? Are we preparing our minds with the Gospel truths we have been told? Spurgeon once said: bind the blessed truth of the gospel more closely to your soul than ever. We must be careful that our hearts are not divided and that our minds are fixed on Jesus and on Him alone.

The next thing we need to consider is “be sober”. How are we getting drunk as we live in this world? This is directly linked to the “girding up the loins of our minds”. When we are not prepared, focused on Jesus, holding on to the truth of the Gospel it is very easy to act like a drunk person. We are at risk of loosing all our senses or morality or right and wrong especially in a society where everything goes, as long as you are happy. We are at risk of distorting God’s truth in the name of diversity and tolerance. We are at risk of being attacked by the enemy and taken captive by all sorts of false teaching. We loose sight of Jesus. As a drunk person cannot distinguish between right and wrong in their numbed mind, we become spiritually dazed, numbed, ineffective, fruitless. “Be sober”. Be spiritually sober.

Why? “Because we are to set our hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.” Peter celebrate God’s grace in verses 1 to 12. Christianity is based on God’s action to save his people, that is grace and we must hope fully on it. May our gracious God help us as we seek to follow him and be more like Him.

God bless.

The concept of beauty has been in my mind for a while now. What our world sees as beauty and what it promotes as beauty is not necessarily beautiful. Women are bombarded all the time to look the part: young, fit, sexy. There is pressure to look a certain way and it hurts women everywhere from all ages. My daughter told me not long ago that one of her little friends at school told her she is fat because she has a little tummy! She is adorable and she is only 6! She is not fat at all but in her little mind that word is playing now time after time. She keeps looking at herself in the mirror and my heart aches when I think she may not like what she sees. This beauty that the world longs for is ugly. It hurts people and it robs them of their self-esteem.

This beauty for show is not what the Bible teaches. From the beginning God created man and women in His image.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

How wonderful and liberating is that? To know we were made in God’s image! Of course we forget that and we listen to what the world tells us all the time about our appearance and that is yet another consequence of a fallen world. A world that rejects God and His love. We do not have to listen to that – as Christian women we must stand firm and tell other women, our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, mothers, cousins that what God is after is a heart that loves Him.

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

We all know that no matter how much we avoid it or try to delay the appearance of old age, for most of us it will come. Our body shape will change and wrinkles will appear. What will be left? Will we be feeling sad when it happens or will we be rejoicing because of the many years God has given us and the wonderful things we have seen and done for His glory? Will we be spending our years trying to impress other people or gain their attention because of the way we look or will we be seeking the Lord with all our hearts and fill our lives with things that are pleasing to Him?

My heart desires to see my daughter living her life to the full, for God, Knowing she was made perfect in His image and that beauty, true beauty, is in seeking His face and worshipping Him. My prayer is that I can be a good example for her and teach her how much God loves her and what a beautiful person she is!

God bless.

P.S.: I do not have anything against women looking after themselves. I have written another post called Mirror, Mirror on the wall you might like to read.

https://thingsoftheheart.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall/

“What would you do if you had one million pounds?” That was the question my friend asked me while we waited for our children in the school playground a few days ago. We were chatting about financial difficulties and she asked me that and proceeded to tell me what she would do with the money. I must confess it was not hard to answer that question. I found myself saying: I would buy a house up front, perhaps a new car, some clothes for all the family, a nice holiday, a boat for my husband, a pony for the children (maybe one each), and I went on and on. I did not even realize that by the time I finished I had spent all the money and some more!

As I drove home all those things kept playing in my mind. I found myself thinking: if only I had those things, life would be so much better! We would have no worries and we would be happy. The more I thought about it the more convinced I was those things would definitely be the solution to all our problems!

What is wrong with this picture you might be wondering! I had let the desire for material things take hold of my heart! When that happened, I took my eyes off God and His faithfulness. I stopped thanking Him for what He gives us everyday. I began to think that those things would be the end of my problems and would make me happy! We do not own a house or a new car. We cannot afford to go on a nice holiday, have a boat or ponies. What we do have is much more valuable than that! We have Jesus. We have His forgiveness and His love. In His great mercy He keeps us healthy and helps us everyday with what we need. God gave my husband and I the love we have for each other and He gave us two beautiful and healthy children.  We have been married for 10 years and are very happy! What more could one want?

When we are busy occupying our minds with the desire for more material things, it is very easy to forget that God, in His grace and mercy, gives us everything and we forget to praise Him. God knows our needs and He promised we would lack nothing.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 not to worry about material things but to seek His kingdom.

²⁵ ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?²⁸ ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

May God help me be thankful for what He has given me. May I always trust in His promise!

God bless!

I have been thinking about the New Year and how we are encouraged by the media to make our New Year’s resolutions. Some people will decide to stop smoking, or drinking. Some will decide to loose some weight. Some will decide to spend more time with their family and not so much time at work. These are all good things! I just wonder how often we are encouraged to look back and thank God for the year that is just ending?!  I like to look back and see how God was present in every moment of the year that is about to finish. How blessed are those who put their trust in Him and can find comfort and peace in Him!

Off course I think about 2014 and think of things I would like to do differently, but I guess, the most import thing I wish for the New Year is to know Jesus better and walk closer to Him. I know if that happens, I will be a better wife, a better mummy, a better friend, a better colleague a better wittiness and over all a better person.

As the year draws to an end my prayer for all of us is that God would surround us with His love and help us all to seek Him more and trust Him more with our lives.

Happy New Year! God bless!

Most people think that the Christmas story begins with the Angel Gabriel telling Mary she had been favoured by God to carry in her womb the Son of God. Then people very often recognise the events that happen between that moment and the actual birth of the Child, as we are all too familiar with the Nativity scenes that so many try to portray, either by performing them or illustrating them.

The story does not begin like that at all. It begins like all true stories do: in the beginning! That is right. Jesus was there in the beginning – He is the Creator. The Bible tells in John 1:1-4:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Also in Colossians 1:15-17:

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

In Genesis 1:26 we read:

^” Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

In the above verse Let us make mankind in our image… God is using the pronouns in the plural (we and our) because Jesus was there, present during the entire creation of the worlds and the universe.

That is where we first see Jesus – in the beginning. In fact He is present throughout the whole history of the greatest rescue plan ever.  The womb was necessary so God in his amazing, infinite love would be made one of us and the manger was just a place to rest that night, while He waited silently to fulfill what had been decided before time began.

Will you look at Jesus this Christmas as a little fragile, dependant, powerless baby or will you worship Him as the Creator?

God bless.

Have you ever felt discouraged? Have you ever lost your motivation? Have you ever felt so tired that you don’t want to do anything and don’t really care about it either? I have had a few days like that recently. I felt like every day was a huge struggle. Life is just too busy at the moment!

Last week when I was putting a few things away I found a little shoe box in the bottom of my wardrobe! It was like finding a treasure! I set down on the floor like an excited little kid that had been given all the Christmas presents she had put on her list! The box was just an old brown shoe box, nothing special about it, except the word letters written on it!

I opened it and saw the envelopes there and immediately a smile was drawn on my face! Those were the letters I received from dear friends encouraging me to keep on going when I first moved to this country nearly 11 years ago. I was having a difficult time adjusting to the culture and I missed my family terribly! I picked one letter from the pile and started reading it! It brought tears to my eyes as I read the verses my friend wrote so beautifully:

⁷ ‘Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1:7-9

And she wrote: “don’t get distracted with things that are taking your attention away from the Cross. Be brave! God is with you always! He has a purpose for you there – trust and throw yourself in His arms!”

God is amazing! He knew I needed encouragement there and then! What an amazing thing it is to know that my God will always be with me and has commanded me to be strong and courageous! It was almost as if God himself was telling me to focus my eyes on Him!

I am also very thankful for how HE used my dear friends that so graciously have encouraged me then and how He uses His word to encourage me time and time again.

God bless!

We went on holiday to a beautiful part of England – Cumbria – during the October half term. Wow! Breath taking views and friendly people everywhere! We really enjoyed ourselves. One of the things we did, despite the weather, was walk up some hills and while we did that we saw big rainbows and small ones, double rainbows, half rainbows and full ones! It was amazing! We also saw rainbows from the boat when we were exploring lake Windermere! (Photo above)

All the time while we were admiring the arch painted beautifully in the sky we were also being reminded of God’s love and his promises!

After God told Noah to build the ark and take the animals and his family in He closed the doors and His judgement came down on his creation as a big flood. When God told Noah it was safe to leave the ark HE made a promise – a new covenant with all living creature. This is what the Bible tells us in Genesis 9:8-17:

^“8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ ¹² And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’ ¹⁷ So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.’”

How amazing is that! In his unfailing, never stopping love God put a sign in the sky to remind Himself of the covenant He made with his creation! We had plenty of opportunities to talk about Noah, his faithfulness to God, his obedience, his faith and trust in God. We spoke about the sin in the world that made people turn away time and time again from God. We talked about how God  decided to make his world clean and He rescued/saved Noah and his family and all the animals. It was really amazing to have so many opportunities to teach our children about God’s love.

It is the season of rainbows now! Well, there is plenty of rain around and some days we might get a little glimpse of the sun, so, when you next see a rainbow, why not tell the person next to you about God’s promises and his love?

God bless.

Have you ever felt sorry for yourself? Or maybe you were just having one of those days when every little thing seems so big and nothing seems to be right?! Well, I have had many of those lately. I think perhaps I have lost my focus. Somewhere, somehow I have stopped putting my thoughts, my hopes, my entire being into Jesus’s hands and started worrying too much about everything else that is going on around me.

I was checking my Facebook and on my news feed page there was a post from a friend. It hit me right on the heart! My friend is fighting cancer at the moment and God is still using this amazing teacher/preacher to inspire me to put all my trust in HIM. God moves in mysterious ways!

So, I have copied below what I read on his post. May it be an encouragement to you!

God bless.