Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

Have We Done This?

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I was reading a well known Bible story in the Old Testament  this morning and some of the details hit me afresh, even though I thought I knew the story well. Jacob had deceived both his father and brother and had run away from home to save his life. His brother in particular, was very angry with him and swore to kill him if he ever got his hands on him!

Jacob went to his father’s relatives many hundreds of miles away, and fell in love with one of his cousins who was a very pretty girl. But Jacob found that the deceitful genes were just as much alive in his relatives there, and that his uncle  tricked him more than once over the years. He had given him the wrong girl for a start, and then changed his wages seven times over. Jacob ended up with both his girl cousins for wives (acceptable in that culture then), and at the time this incident happened, he had eleven sons.

His flocks and herds had increased to such an extent that his men cousins were starting to mutter about this fact. At the same time, God spoke to Jacob in a dream, telling him to return to his father’s house. It was time for him to put things right with his brother. Jacob prepared to do this, and gathered all his belongings and flocks and herds together  and left without telling his uncle he was leaving, sneaking away one night while he  was busy elsewhere.

When his uncle heard of this,  he started off in pursuit of Jacob’s party, but God intervened one night in a dream and told him he was not to touch Jacob or to accuse him of anything. When he caught up with Jacob, he asked him why had had done this , leaving in such a hurry that he couldn’t say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren.     ” I thought you wouldn’t let them go,” Jacob replied, “Besides I’ve worked for you for twenty years and you changed my wages many times! I’ve looked after your animals and made good any that were taken by wild animals.”

Jacob’s uncle knew this was true, and he was somewhat pacified. “Well, let’s make an agreement that we will leave each other alone after this,” he said. So they put together a heap of stones and made an agreement with each other, eating a feast at the spot which sealed the  pact.

The time had come for Jacob to meet his brother Esau. It was an  easy  meeting, and they made up between them. Then this was the part of the story that made an impression on me.  After  Esau left and Jacob  had sent his wives and children off ahead of him,  God appeared to him as a stranger passing by and began to wrestle with him. Jacob was a tough outdoors person by this time, and neither of the contestants was beating the other, until suddenly the stranger touched Jacob’s thigh. Jacob began to limp with the pain and let him go suddenly.

The Stranger said, “What is your name?”                                                                “My name is Jacob,” he said. Suddenly it hit him what  his name Jacob meant. Supplanter, Deciever, everything that he had been in all his sinfulness up until this point. As he realised this and saw himself as he was, the Stranger said, “Your name from now on will be Israel, a Prince with God!” What a change happened within Jacob’s being as this was said. “What is Your  Name, then?” he asked.                   “Why do you ask?” the Stranger said, and gave him God’s blessing on the spot.  Again, the realisation hit Jacob, and he cried out, “This place shall be called Peniel, because I have seen God face to face, and I’m still alive!”

Jacob was never the same again, either in his spirit or in his body as he limped for the rest of his life, a perpetual reminder of his encounter with the God of his father and grandfather.

This story reminded me of the same principles that govern our lives today. We must each one have a personal encounter with God; we must realise the sin we are in, and how crooked and deceitful we  are naturally. We must confess our sin before God can forgive us and make us anew. We CAN become new creatures in Christ, and this is the only way we can rise above our sinful natures that abuse each other and cause untold misery in our lives today.

The blessings that God gives each one who does this are unspeakable,  and we are given a new name as well as a new nature. It is only as God touches our lives, even if this causes pain in some way, that this can happen. Let’s pray and look to God for this to happen.

(You can read this story about Jacob in Genesis 29-32)

 

Life Lessons

The Unexpected!

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We have had two unexpected deaths in the last couple of weeks in our church congregation… one was a lady in her early eighties, but a very alert and fit lady who led a Bible study and was full of life….she suffered an aneurism and was gone in a matter of hours. The other one was equally unexpected where this lady’s neighbour heard the dog barking all night without letting up. She went over to this lady’s house in the morning and found the backdoor hadn’t been locked the night before, and there she was lying on the floor, gone.
Neither of these ladies knew that last day, that it would indeed be their last. It was a great shock to all who knew them, and is a real wake-up call to us all, to make sure that we are ready for this, the last call. When these ladies woke up that last day, they had no idea of what lay ahead.
The first one had even been to a Keep-fit class that morning. These incidents show us how uncertain life is. We aren’t promised tomorrow. We aren’t even promised the end of the current day. The only moment we have is NOW.
The only certain thing about life is that it is going to end one day. Whenever there is a birth, there will be a death. But no-one knows when.
There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Teach me to number my days (consider my mortality); so that I may live wisely” (Psalm 90:12)
Let’s make sure that we consider these things and be ready to meet our Maker, no matter how suddenly or unexpectedly it may happen.

Life Lessons

The Dream Home

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As I went for my morning walk each day, I watched the new house at the end of the road taking shape. First the land was prepared, and then the floor laid…everything on the plan was put in place from the drains to the power cables before the walls went up At last the house was completed down to the last new curtain and all the floor coverings. What a lot of care and thought had gone into the planning of it all! Later on, they asked us inside and proudly showed it all off. It was indeed a lovely home.
Can we say that about the home we are building with our lives and what we do? Make no mistake, we are all engaged in building this home whether we know it or not. Is it going to be a place of comfort or a place of regrets? Is it going to be a place where we can invite our Maker to come into and show it off to Him? Or will it have some secret corners that we would be ashamed to show anyone?
The lady of this new home flung open the cupboard doors to show how it had all been planned to the best advantage, and how every bit of space had been utilised. Can we do that with the cupboards of our lives? Or do we just throw things inside without folding them, and shut the doors on the mess?
Everything was colour co-ordinated with not a thing out of place. It made me wonder if my life was in as good order with colours of everything complementing the rest? We may say that we haven’t got the gifts or wherewithal that others have to do this, but we ALL have something we can start with.

Let’s make sure that we do the best we can, with what we have….no-one can expect more than this of us. We all have attitudes and concerns we can build on….let’s start with those and then go on to find other things we can do to help and build up other people.

Life Lessons

A Lesson in Trusting God

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“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”.
As I read those words in my morning Bible reading recently, my mind went back many years ago to the time when we HAD put confidence in what people had told us and were badly let down. We were contemplating buying a commercial building with two tenants leasing it. The tenant downstairs seemed reliable enough, but then we had some doubts about the ones upstairs. We asked them how long they were likely to need the lease for, and they said as long as they didn’t expand, there was no likelihood of them moving. So with that assurance, we bought the building.
For a few months, everything went well, and then the tenants upstairs gave notice that they were moving but would continue paying their rent until the end of their lease in six month’s time. This was a blow that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to face. Once the lease ran out, we were left with only half the income we had reckoned on, and as time went by we were unable to lease out the top floor. It was either too big, or there wasn’t enough parking. It was certainly never classed as being too small by any prospective tenant!
Things were not easy and we began to wonder if we had made a mistake in “putting our confidence in man “. We had prayed about the proposition before buying it and done our homework as thoroughly as we could, but now the only conclusion we could come to was that we must have made a mistake in buying the place.
During this time, my morning Bible reading was about the time when the Lord told His disciples to row across the lake, all the time knowing what was going to happen. He knew the storm was going to come and toss them about. Yet He still told them to go. They hadn’t made a mistake in setting off across the lake….they went at His bidding. He didn’t divert the storm, He allowed things to work out their course. He knew He would meet them in their hour of desperate need and calm the storm.
After reading this story, my mind settled down somewhat. We hadn’t made a mistake after all, the Lord just wanted to teach us that He was in control and would release us from the situation in His good time. It didn’t happen overnight but the building eventually sold and we were released from the situation we were in. How relieved we were and overjoyed at not having to go through this hard time any more!!
I now know that whatever comes our way, God is always in control. If things are easy, we must give Him thanks, and when things come tough, we are to tighten our belts (figuratively) and still give Him thanks that things are no worse than they are! Above all, we are not to put our confidence in what people tell us, but to always trust in God and what He says.