Isaiah 54 The future glory of Zion

The Future Glory of Zion

54 “Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants will dispossess nations
    and settle in their desolate cities.

4 “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
5 For your Maker is your husband—
    the Lord Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
    he is called the God of all the earth.
6 The Lord will call you back
    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
    only to be rejected,” says your God.
7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
8 In a surge of anger
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
    I will have compassion on you,”
    says the Lord your Redeemer.

9 “To me this is like the days of Noah,
    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
    never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

11 “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,[a]
    your foundations with lapis lazuli.
12 I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of sparkling jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.
13 All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.
14 In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
    it will not come near you.
15 If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
    whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith
    who fans the coals into flame
    and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
17     no weapon forged against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    and this is their vindication from me,”
declares the Lord.

Live in peace and be holy

The Mountain of Fear and the Mountain of Joy

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”
21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 

25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”
27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Letter to Hebrews 12: 18-28

We serve an amazing Father!

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverb 16:24

“‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
Jeremiah 33: 6

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For you are my praise. Jeremiah 17:14

Dear friends, 
My hubby and I have been unwell for the last five days, laryngitis, coughing. We invited my brother on Christmas day but thought of cancelling. On Christmas Eve, Steven went to bed at 9 pm and trusted me to bone out the goose because he was feeling so rough.
Yesterday, I went to the GP, my appointment was at 6 30 pm she was running an hour late and the waiting room was packed with mum and tearful kids, couples, coughing, sneezing.. My friend Brigitte told me that only good teachers are ill during the holidays!..lol 

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas season. 💗💗.

The consequence of justification

The peace of God

Blessed assurance!

Where do you turn to when your soul is in turmoil? Why? 

We are having a great Sunday, this morning in Ambernac, worship and teaching was great and we had a lovely time with our friends afterwards.

Tasty lunch and restful afternoon.

It's getting dark and suddenly I find myself besieged by questions that bring worries!

Only one solution. 

Speaking the truth to my soul and tell her to rest in the Lord's unfailing love!

This is the answer. Jesus-Christ told us: 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.'

Psalm 1

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, 

And in His law he meditates day and night. 

3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season 

And its leaf does not wither; 

And in whatever he does, he prospers. 

4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.…

Living in France!

I'm settling down in France slowly but surely. In September I started teaching in a secondary school in Angouleme and I love it. What is demanding is driving there from where we live in Civray (Vienne) because I need to be there just before 8 a.m. three days a week. I need to live our house at 6:30 to get there for 7:30 and I usually find a parking place in the Parking blanc. 

So I welcome the holidays! I am going to be able to sleep a little more in the  morning instead of getting up at 6 a.m. I might also go to bed later than 11 p.m. without feeling exhausted in the morning. 

The last day of term at our school was great. We were all gathered in the court yard at 11 and listened to every year presentation on different themes. Students expressed what they felt about the main Christian themes: Joy, Love, Hope, Peace in different ways. The most poignant was the Year 7 call to stop the persecution of Christian in Aleppo and to help the Syrian refugees.

At lunch time I went in town for lunch with four colleagues and had a cheesy omelette with Gruyere.   

On the Thursday, it is customary for the English teachers to set up a Christmas market in the préau. It was well attended. The kids loved it, they could buy two different kins of mince pies, small and normal size, crackers, and plenty of other artefacts that my colleagues managed to order a month ago!

Wednesday afternoon, Steven and I managed to have some quiet time in St Macoux. There is a restaurant by the side of a étang and we had a drink and a place of chips. Not many birds in sight though because it was cold!

Syria: under bombs and under fire

TO SECRETARY JOHN KERRY AND PRESIDENT OBAMA,

The repeated targeting of healthcare workers and hospitals by the Russian and Syrian governments are war crimes. We call on you to give Syria’s heroic healthcare workers and the communities they serve a zone free from bombing to ensure their protection. The international community has agreed the bombs need to stop. The resolutions are in place. They simply need to be enforced.

SPREAD THE WORD

BOMBS AND UNDER FIRE

We are in an emergency. In July 2016 a medical facility was attacked on average every 17 hours. Many facilities have been attacked multiple times, often changing location for safety. When they started building a hospital in one northern Syrian town, local residents begged them to move -- knowing the hospital would be targeted.

Since Syria’s peaceful uprising was met with brutal force doctors have been systematically targeted by the Syrian government and its allies. For the Syrian government anyone treating people on ‘the other side’ is a valid target, and their elimination part of a deliberate strategy to force people back into areas under its control. 

Of the 750 medical workers killed since the beginning of the conflict, all but 52 have been killed by Syrian or Russian government attacks - this is just what has been documented, the real number is likely much higher. 

Despite being in clear contravention of international humanitarian law, medics have been executed and tortured. One doctor who was interrogated said “the most important thing was not to reveal my medical work,” since it is common knowledge that doctors are tortured worse than other prisoners.

However, the biggest killer of medical workers in Syria is neither torture nor execution. The greatest threat comes from the air - the Syrian government and Russian bombing. At least 750 medical workers have been killed and over 400 hospital attacks have been destroyed by these indiscriminate weapons. 

These attacks are not just killing physicians and damaging hospitals, but destroying entire communities. When you kill a doctor in Syria, you are ensuring that hundreds, if not thousands, of people will die. 

When you destroy a medical facility, you push people out of their communities to seek desperately needed services. In addition to routine aerial attacks targeting hospitals, health workers face a chronic lack of supplies and specialists. This is particularly dire in besieged areas, where treatable diseases and injuries can be a death sentence.

Bristol - Limoges

10:40. Limoges airport was full of expats waiting for their beloved to come through customs and it took more time than usual, half an hour! My sister-in -law Pauline did not show any sign of nervosity after her flight but I know how hard it's been for her to come to visit us by plane. She did think of coming by coach but it would have taken 23 hours (Bristol - Poitiers) 

Last time she flew to Spain was 16 years ago and she just remembered the scary turbulences! 

The first thing she told me about the flight was that the Lord gave her peace of mind before the flight and she felt very grateful! 

We are proud of her and so pleased that she made it. Tomorrow is market day in Civray, then we'll have a walk round the town. 

It's been a warm day here and I hear that in Bristol, it was pouring all day.

Page after page after page

Then!

Chris Bennett: The Dock project began back in 2009 and at that stage everything around here was still a building site, it was still scaffolding and big holes in the ground. But at that stage I was asked by Bishop Harold, I'm an ordained Church of Ireland Minister, and I'd been kind of looking for my next challenge and Harold suggested that the challenge might be trying to dream up and think up what might be an appropriate expression of church in the midst of the Titanic Quarter as it grew.

Now:

Chris Bennett: We have seen amazing growth in many ways but there's no doubt that The Tall Ships festival in Belfast in July certainly put us to the test. It was, in every way, a big event. Fifty ships, 50,000 visitors and, over four days, the Dock Café served 5,510 customers!

We've also just celebrated another milestone in that we have filled a complete Visitors' Book in Dock Café. It may not sound like much but, when we opened in 2012, we commissioned some lovely leather-bound visitors' - books though it seemed impossible that we would ever run out of space. Hundreds of pages, eight entries per page... there would never be that many customers through our doors, would there?

Page after page after page tells a story of visitors finding a welcome, wanderers finding a home, individuals finding friendship, busy people finding peace, stressed people finding space, sorrowful people finding a smile, sceptical people finding faith (or sometimes just some experience of God, or grace, or something divine that they can't quite put their finger on...)

The Dock charity is made up of a number of things: café, art gallery, museum and, of course, church – a church which continues to involve a team of dedicated volunteers and chaplains from across all church backgrounds, both Protestant and Catholic, who are committed to sharing every step of the journey of building community in this new part of Belfast.

We also have a prayer garden where people can rest and reflect, or talk to one of our Prayer Team. It's a little oasis of greenery and peace in the corner of The Dock Café and is open during Café hours; providing a space to reflect, read from our library of books, and maybe write a prayer and post it on the wall or in the prayer journal.

Find out more about this Fresh Expression project, read on, click here!

Peace and joy at Easter!

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14:17

Christian Time Management - Life, Hope & Truth

What God wants us to learn from time management

God wants us to become His children—to be like Him (Hebrews 2:10; 1 John 3:1-3)!

To become more like God, we need to learn to have His priorities. We need to learn to use those priorities to produce a plan for improving our lives and aligning them to God’s plan. And we need to put those plans into action. God’s priorities and plans always produce results, and so can ours.
Priorities

God reveals to us what is truly most important in life. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

The Kingdom of God is the perfect government of God that will bring peace and plenty to this earth when Jesus Christ returns. We must be preparing for that time now. Seeking God’s righteousness means striving to live the right way—obeying God’s beneficial laws that are based on God’s love. (Study more about these priorities in our article “Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God.”)

The end of Matthew 6:33 reveals an amazing thing about God’s priorities. If we put what God says is important first, the other things we need and want will be added to us as well!

Read on, follow this link here. I found this interesting website: www.lifehopeandtruth.com . Have a blessed evening my friends. N.

Who is going to stop murderous Boko Haram?

A distraught father has described his constant anguish ever since his eldest daughter went missing two weeks ago during a murderous rampage by Boko Haram militants. "I am very worried about her," the dad in his 50s who asked to be identified as a civil servant told NBC News by telephone. "Every day I think about her, I have not even slept. I pray to God that she is still alive."

After attacking a military base near the town of Baga on January 3, the brutal Islamist sect turned its attention to the civilian population in and around the Nigerian fishing town. It torched thousands of buildings, kidnapped women and children, and killed townsfolk indiscriminately.

The father told NBC News that he only had enough time to bundle his wife and most of his children into a car, and head for the relatively safe haven of Maiduguri 100 miles to the south. But with the area under attack and the safety of his family to consider, he said it was simply not an option to travel across town to the home of his 23-year-old daughter and her husband.

How long are those massacres going to last unpunished? How long is Boko Haram going to taunt us? I say 'us' because I know that you and I feel the pain of all those parents and family members as if we were there with them. 

A prayer.

Heavenly father, we ask you who are all powerful and omniscient to twart the plans of our enemies and give wisdom to our political leaders to help bring peace in Nigeria and the countries nearby. May your will be done. In Jesus-Christ, our saviour and redeemer. Amen.

Do you know who is Jesus?

Who do you think Jesus is?

Jesus is redeemer, saviour, best friend, true love, 

He is faithful, perfect, alive, calling, undeniable, soon coming, amazing, beautiful, merciful, holding my hand, everything, glorious, holy, deliverer, the word, Lord, peace, forgiveness, miraculous, with me, healer, a strong tower, forever steadfast, the Blessing , real , the reason, the promise fulfilled, salvation , shepherd, risen, 

He is God.

Amen!

Read more, click here!

http://www.knowing-jesus.com

What's that? Did you say 'Laminin' ?

11 days ago, my sister-in law Pauline sent me a message and somehow I missed it! Not because it was enigmatic but because I have been skimming through all the rubbish I do get in my in-box. Anyway, tonight I'm thinking that I'd better delete a few of those messages, suddenly I see Pauline's and wow, I was absolutely astonished! Somebody I've never heard of (I must say) talking about the Laminin (what's that? ) on youtube! Play it! You will be amazed! 

I had to check what the Laminin was! The stuff that holds our body together is the perfect shape of the cross of our Lord Jesus-Christ. In Colossians 1 Paul speaks about the supremacy of Christ, Colossians 1-16 Paul says 'by Him, all things have been created' Things in the heaven and things in earth! All things were created by Jesus and for Jesus. Jesus is before all things and in Jesus-Christ, all things hold together! Of course they do. Colossians 1-19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him (Christ)! 

Have a blessed evening. Yours in Christ, N.

Beauty isn't..

Beauty isn't having a beautiful face. 

It's about having a beautiful mind, a good heart and a kind soul. Have a blessed and peaceful night. 

Walk by the Spirit..

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.Against such things there is no law.24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Before this passage, Paul says:

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.(AE)

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Have a blessed week-end. Nicky

Salvation, peace, hope, purpose, love, Kingdom of Heaven

The Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Rt Rev Robert Paterson, speaking at the General Synod today said potential members were put off by the Church of England's "internalising" tendency.
He said the Church of England was failing to capitalise on a widespread "residual faith" in English society.
"There is a great deal of residual faith around in this country, you only have to meet people in hospital, people who are sad from the death of those they love, people who don't turn up on Sundays to church but who ask us to pray with them," he said.
He added: "The trouble is that what is on the label of the Church tin is still not what is in the tin.
"On the label, the church tin says 'open here for salvation, peace, hope, purpose, love, Kingdom.. but when it is open inside the tin we so often find humbug, or if we are Anglicans, fudge.
"People outside the church have noticed that internalising tendency and they don't want to belong to an apparently useless and self-orientated organisation.
"The symptoms of this can be seen in the general decline of the self- preserving parts of the institutional church and in contrast, growth among the more visionary and less defensive."

Tory Minister Baroness Warsi warns persecution threatens the Christian way of life

Baroness Warsi, the Minister for Faith and Communities, said Christians were being driven out of countries such as Syria and Iraq where the religion first took root.The peer, Britain’s first female Muslim Cabinet minister, raised her concerns in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC.Earlier, she said countries such as Pakistan should do more to “set the tone” for tolerance of minorities.Lady Warsi told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m concerned that the birthplace of Christianity, the parts of the world where Christianity first spread, is now seeing large sections of the community leaving and those remaining feeling persecuted.“There are huge advantages to having pluralistic societies – everything from the economy to the way people develop educationally, and therefore we all have an interest in making sure that Christian communities do continue to feel that they belong and are not persecuted.”
She said she had already had “very frank conversations” with ministers in Pakistan, telling them that senior politicians have a “duty” to speak out against persecution.

Source :  http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/443369/Minister-Baroness-Warsi-warns-persecution-threatens-the-Christian-way-of-life

Celestina Mba sues over Sunday shifts

In my inbox, I received a Prayer Alert: Sunday working case from Christian Concern. You may have heard of the case already. Here are the facts if you haven't. Christian children’s worker Celestina Mba is taking The Mayor and the London Borough of Merton to the Court of Appeal tomorrow (Wednesday 23 October) over their refusal to provide Reasonable Accommodation for her devoutly held Christian beliefs. Before Celestina began working for Brightwell Children’s Home in London, she agreed with her employers that she would not work on Sundays in accordance with her Christian beliefs. But the Council changed the arrangement soon after she started the job, saying that the arrangement was temporary, forcing her to choose between her job and her Christian observance. If successful, the case could be a benchmark for thousands of Christians in England now ‘forced’ to work on Sundays if they are to keep their jobs. Join Christian Concern team and us in ours prayers :
For a successful and just outcome
For wisdom for the judges
For barrister Paul Diamond who will be arguing in court on behalf of Celestina
That Celestina and her legal team would experience “the peace of God which transcends all understanding” during the proceedings
For fair and accurate news coverage

The Degradation of Christian Women under Islam

The Degradation of Christian Women under Islam
Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim at the Gatestone Institute

A church in the Syrian village of al-Duwayr, after an attack by Islamist militiamen. (Image credit: Syria Report)

Meanwhile, in Egypt, U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson was urging Christian Copts not to protest Muslim Brotherhood rule, even though they would suffer under it most. According to Al Azhar, the world's oldest Islamic university, Islam is a religion of peace.

The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June. In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any Muslim waging jihad against Syria's government, and then executed.

According to Agenzia Fides, "The commander of the battalion 'Jabhat al-Nusra' in Qusair took Mariam, married and raped her. Then he repudiated her. The next day the young woman was forced to marry another Islamic militant. He also raped her and then repudiated her. The same trend was repeated for 15 days, and Mariam was raped by 15 different men. This psychologically destabilized her and made her insane. Mariam became mentally unstable and was eventually killed."

In Pakistan, Muslim men stormed the home of three Christian women, beat them, stripped them naked and tortured them, and then paraded them in the nude in a village in the Kasur district. Days earlier, it seems the goats of the Christian family had accidentally trespassed onto Muslim land; Muslims sought to make an example of the Christian family, who, as third-class citizens, must know their place at all times.

Iraq: During the middle of the night, armed men attacked St. Mary's Assyrian Catholic Church in Baghdad; they wounded two Christian guards, one seriously. Later the same day, bombs were set off at two Christian-owned businesses, both near the church; they killed one Christian shop owner, a parishioner at St. Mary's. Since the U.S. "liberation" of Iraq in 2003, 73 churches have been attacked or bombed, and more than half of the country's Christian population has either fled or been killed.
Continue reading, click here
Father, we thank you that we have the freedom of faith and worship in our countries. We ask you in the name of Jesus-Christ our Saviour and King to stop those conflicts, to give wisdom to the leaders of those countries, to strengthen all our Christian brothers and sisters who live in such countries where those atrocities prevail, to help them rebuild their lives and guide us to do our utmost in our lives to spread your message of love, forgiveness and peace. May your will be done in Jesus'name. Amen