It's Amazing What You Find in the Attic! (1 Timothy 1)

It's Amazing What You Find in the Attic! (1 Timothy 1)

1 Timothy 1.18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well [tniv]

Any serious comic book collector could tell you that the world's most expensive comic is DC's Action Comics #1, released in 1938. Written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster, this book contained the first 12-page glimpse of the now iconic superhero - Superman. Originally sold in newsstands for a mere 10 cents, in today's market a near mint copy of this comic is valued at $700,000 USD!

As a child I can remember my weekly trips to the local newsagent to pick up my copy of Superman's latest adventure. There were many a times spent with the flashlight under the covers reading late into the night. As the years went by my collection continued to grow and expand, taking in other comic titles as well. For Father's Day this year the family bought me a software package which catalogued comics. To my amazement I have well over 1000 comics!

There have been times over the years where I have been tempted to sell my comics but each time I come close, I get cold feet and decide that I can't part with them. So now my collection sits gathering dust in plastic sleeves in cardboard boxes. Every now and again, I'll pull them out, have a look through and reminisce about simpler times and recall childhood memories.

If we are not careful we can end up doing the same thing with prophetic words. We become collectors. God speaks to us through His Word or directly through someone else. As exciting as that is at the time, eventually it ends up forgotten, maybe stored in a journal, sitting on a book shelf somewhere, gathering dust.

But Paul is reminding Timothy that prophetic words serve more than just giving you a momentary buzz, they actually are meant to help us fight our present battles.

Prophetic words remind us that God has a plan for our lives, that He hasn't finished with us. Maybe some of the difficulties we are facing right now are because we have forgotten what God has said and we have allowed the circumstances of life to cause us to settle for a life we were never meant to have lived.

But God is greater! Dust off those prophetic words. Reread God's Word for my life. And allow Him to reignite the dreams and passion in our heart that once burned strong and to help us to stand and fight today's battle well.

Who knows, the answers for todays problems may be found in your attic!

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Lessons from an old lady! (Luke 13)

Lessons from an old lady! (Luke 13)

Luke 13.10-11 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all [niv]

I remember the first time I prayed and God answered. I was nine years old at the time, and a relatively new Christian. My Dad had stopped at a petrol station and while he was inside, I prayed a very simple prayer, "God please let Dad buy me an ice-cream, and I will serve you the rest of my life." If I could go back in time, I would travel back to this day and grab that chubby nine year, look him straight in the eyes and scream, "ARE YOU CRAZY!" But sure enough, when Dad came back to the car, he wasn't empty handed.

Then there was the time when I was a teenager, I asked God for a sign if He was real. The words had barely left my lips when the night sky lit up by a huge streak of lightning, followed within seconds by an almighty clap of thunder which shook the whole house.

There was also the time when I was pastoring my first church in Warrnambool, pleading with God to cover the church's debt of $10,000. Within minutes of praying, I got up, walked out to the letterbox to find a bank cheque for $10,000 in the letterbox!

But there were other times I prayed and heard nothing.

Like the time I prayed for God to heal my Mum of lung cancer, but she died. Or the time I cried out to God to deliver me from certain addictions, but He didn't. I've prayed for certain family members to come to Christ, and they haven't. There have been times when I have tithed and honoured God with my money and nothing happened. The bills kept coming in, the bank balance never changed and the cupboards stayed empty.

The woman in this story was suffering with some form of spinal arthritis for 18 years. She spent 18 years of her life bent over, looking at the ground and not able to straighten up. Yet when Jesus finds her, she is not at home feeling sorry for herself, watching "The Bold and the Beautiful". She is in the synagogue.

According to the custom of the day, she would have gone there at least once a week. So each week she goes to a place of worship, where prayers are offered, scripture is read and offerings made. And each week she walked home exactly the same! Bent over. She did this for 18 years!

As Christians we will all go through times of trouble or pressure. What I have found after 30 years in ministry is that often when faced with difficulty and God seems silent, we tend to stop praying, stop reading the Bible, stop tithing, stop serving and eventually stop attending.

Yet this woman after 18 years still remained consistent even though her situation never changed. She kept doing those things she knew to do, every though her circumstances screamed out at her, "GIVE IT UP!" It was her consistency which made sure she was in the right place at the right time to receive her miracle from Jesus.

When Jesus turned up at her synagogue that particular day, she didn't come to listen to guest ministry, or to receive a prophetic word. She didn't try to touch the hem of his garment, climb a tree to catch his attention or cry out in a loud voice, "Jesus Son of David have mercy on me!" She just stood there, probably towards the back. Bent over. Looking at the ground. Silent. Because that's what she did every week for the past 18 years. And Jesus noticed her out of everyone.

Maybe we can all learn something from her.

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Be Thankful for Fleas! (Colossians 4)

Be Thankful for Fleas! (Colossians 4)

Colossians 4.2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving

In her book 'The Hiding Place', Corrie ten Boom recounts her experiences as a prisoner during World War 2. While living in Holland, Corrie and her family were arrested for helping hide Jews from the Nazi's. Her parents didn't survive the horror which followed and Corrie and her sister Betsy were eventually transfered to a concentration camp in Ravensbruck, Germany.

It was a large camp with several oversized and overcrowded barracks. Each barracks housed hundreds of prisoners. On their first day there, Betsy and Corrie were shown their sleeping platform, a wooden base covered with mouldly, foul-smelling straw. Corrie felt something pinch her leg. "Fleas!" she cried! Sure enough, the barracks were infested with them!

Through a miracle they had been able to smuggle a small Bible in with them. If caught, they would be severely punished. Betsy opened the Bible and reminded Corrie that the Word of God instructed to pray earnestly and be always thankful.

As hard as it was, they began to thank God for the fleas. Over the next several months, the sisters began to notice something strange. The guards never came to their barracks! They took courage and began to lead the women in prayer and Bible study right in the heart of a Nazi concentration camp! Through this countless numbers of women came to faith in Christ. Their barracks became a sanctuary and a refuge in the midst of hell.

It was only some time later that they discovered the reason why the guards left them alone. They stayed away because of the severe infestation of fleas!

God calls us all to be vigilant in our prayers. And He wants us to do it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Our ability to do this should have nothing to do with our circumstances but rather we obey simply because His Word tells us to.

When was the last time we stopped complaining about our problems and instead thanked God for them. Maybe our problems aren't really problems, just God's blessing in disguise!

It might not be what we expected, but if God can use a flea to keep His children safe during a holocaust, imagine what He might use to help you!

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Forgive and Don't Forget! (Colossians 3)

Forgive and Don't Forget! (Colossians 3)

** please welcome the lovely Cathy Swan as today's guest blogger

Colossians 3.13 You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. [nlt]

I forgive you. A phrase we can often find very hard to say, especially to those who call themselves Christians. Aren’t Christians supposed to be just that – ‘Christ ones’? We seem to hold those in the Church, to a higher standard than unsaved family or friends. We expect the pastor to always be available when we need him, we expect our Christian friends to be always loving and never judgmental.

There are so many self-professing Christians who refuse to even darken the door of a church because they have been ‘hurt in the church!’ Yet when Jesus was here on earth He told us that ‘offense will come’!

The truth is that we will be hurt by people, regardless of whether they are in pastors, family members, close friends or fellow members of the family of God. It’s a natural part of living here on planet earth. If we can understand that, it will help us to move on and deal with the hurt and forgive.

Jose and I have been through two extremely difficult situations in church life that caused us a lot of hurt and even made us question our faith and our future involvement in church. This betrayal of trust and Godliness hurt us badly but if we had not forgiven and walked on, we would probably not be in a place of much use to anyone today.

We hear the phrase forgive and forget thrown around very carelessly today. But the key to forgiveness is remembering. Remembering that the Lord forgave us! Even when we were still locked in our own sin, He loved us and forgave us. His expectation of us is that we go and do the same. We have no right to harbour unforgiveness to others. We need to accept that hurt will come, and then act swiftly to show forgiveness. God doesn't say 'if' we can forgive, He says we 'must' forgive!

Then we can heal and move forward.

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Paid in Full! (Colossians 2)

Paid in Full! (Colossians 2)

Colossians 2.14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. [nkjv]

It was one of those embarrassing moments which has probably happened to most of us at some stage of our life. Frances Martinez was trying to pay for her groceries but was having problems with her debit card. The eftpos machine was refusing to accept it, citing 'insufficient funds' as the reason for its non-cooperation. After a few attempts she left her groceries on the counter and went to phone the bank. When she came back, the cashier had surprising news for her. "Someone has paid for your groceries!" When Martinez asked who this Good Samaritan was, the only clue the cashier could give was that it was a lady who had been standing behind her in the queue. When Frances Martinez arrived home, all she could do was cry. She later told her local newspaper that, "with times the way they are and the economy so bad, it's wonderful to think that someone would do something like that for a complete stranger!"

Although we are no strangers to Jesus, this is exactly what He has done for us! When we were left with no means to pay, He took the long list of sins we have committed and paid for these in full with His blood, nailing them to the cross for all eternity. Our debt is gone!

However we need to make sure that list stays nailed to the cross. The temptation for all of us is to listen to the lies of satan, who tries to get us to remember our past. He wants us to take our list back off the cross. When it is in our hands, it's easy for him to pour on the guilt and condemnation, causing us to doubt God's work in our lives. We forget that it was all settled at Calvary.

Martin Luther once told how satan laid heavy condemnation on him because of his sins. Luther told satan to list them all, and even reminded him of some he had forgotten. Then he told satan to write across the whole list, "paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ."

Just like Luther, we can rejoice and rest in the knowledge that our sins have been 'paid in full' by Him who loves us. They have been nailed to the cross and to the cross they must stay.

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