Galatians 1:6 - 9

So there we were - basking in God's love and mercy and grace and peace and all in our garden of belief is lovely....the gospel, the good news, saves us and restores our relationship with God and what more could we want?

And yet.... they turned away. Paul's exasperated diatribe reveals his shock and astonishment.

When I hear of folk slipping away, no longer attending church, living lives of selfishness, I just feel sadness tinged with inevitability.

And yet... this could be me, too: "You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News"

I take comfort in Paul's prayer of protection: that he has prayed that anyone who preaches a different message from the Gospel will be punished!  Not that I wish that on anyone, but it helps me concentrate on keeping focused on the Truth.

On Jesus.

Keep on keeping on

Eternity. The prospect of life for ever with Jesus. When I think of it, REALLY think of it, imagining life where there is no pain or heartbreak, no sorrow or tears, no dull ache of emptiness and grief...yes, I know this to be true: 

"I know how great this makes you feel, 

even though you have to put up 

with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 

... genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory."

And what IS my faith? 

My faith is in believing that Jesus died because of MY ugliness and sin: I cannot try to beautify it, ignore or hide it.

My faith is in believing that if I follow Jesus' example, I will try my best to live a life of self-sacrifice and care for others - recognising that I cannot achieve 'goodness' or 'greatness' in my own efforts. I can only do what little I can, steeped in imperfection and the possibility of mistakes, and offer it to Jesus to use.

(A bit like grubby uncooked pastry which 4 year old me offered to my grandmother. I remember my puzzlement that she didn't seem to want it...)

Because: "You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation."

Keep on believing.

Just another email...?

It was just another email from one of the blogs I subscribe to. I was whizzing through my inbox, trying to clear just a little of the backlog before I left for work: speedreading at its best.
I'd just read one from Ed's series on 'Doing Justice', on the work of a Dutch woman with children in the Philippines. I'd been reflecting on living to do God's work, on being part of His Kingdom and what that might look like for us in the next few years as we face illness/change/moving home/retirement...certainties, probabilities and possibilities all mixed in confusingly together.
My mind jerked from missions overseas to a story of a second marriage. Huh?
Yet as I skimmed down, the words tore into my heart and I started to weep as I read a remarkable story of a woman's faithfulness to keep a promise she had made (to try to have another child) and God's provision through that faithfulness against the odds:
"After surgery we waited for the stick to turn blue…never did. Thinking it might be due to my thyroid, I made a doctor’s appointment and discovered that my cancer had returned and it was creeping way too close to my esophagus. Surgery, radiation and four years later… gave birth to a son.

Had I not kept the promise, the cancer may not have been found in time.

Had I not kept the promise to try, we would not have our son – now 12.

Had I not kept the promise, my arms would have ached to hold a child when my daughter died, so my arms were constantly hovering over my son…(he was not nearly as thrilled about hugs as I was!)

God honored my promise to try by giving us a child, healing my disease, and providing comfort.

God made promises to us all through His Word.

He has and will keep…Every. Single. One.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11

He promises to provide our every need. He promises to comfort, to give us peace and a future. He promises that He will never flood the earth again. He promises us eternal life with Him when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. There are over 3000 promises in the Bible…and what if God chose to not fulfill even one of those promises? Hard to imagine, isn’t it?

We should make our promises carefully. There are promises I’m sure I’ve made to God and to family and friends that I have not kept through the years…and He’s given me tremendous grace.

As you know, making a promise is giving our word. That’s exactly what God did as He breathed promise after promise into the Bible…He gave HIS WORD to us."

And so I come across Jeremiah 29:11/ A promise. (And an added bonus: I was reflecting on God's promise to never flood the earth again, too, as I had taught the story to 8 year olds the day before.)

Plans. Purposes. Promises.

FAITH.