Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts

Wednesday

An Aladdin's Lamp - A Dose of Encouragement


I went online one day to do my travel map for fun and even though I have travelled to quite a few places it decided that I had only visited 12% of the world.  

I asked Fred to go and do his because he has been to so many more countries than me but he just laughed and said he was too busy.






Fred travelled a lot last month but I saw him each weekend and I even travelled with him for 2 of the weeks.  This was because he was doing all his work in Southern Ireland and drove everywhere.

Now this month he will travel much further away and I won't go on any of the trips with him and I will not have him home for all of the weekends.
In fact I will not have him home for many days at all for the rest of the month.

He is going to Sweden, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and finally back to Southern Ireland.
This will be his first visit to Abu Dhabi but it is not his first time to the other places.


Some years ago when he went to the Middle East he brought me back a little gift.


Now because Fred has travelled with work for many many years he has not brought home gifts every time.  The first few trips he brought gifts for the children because they were young but then as the travelling continued he would only occasionally bring something back.  Mostly he would bring me a plate from a new country or a different State in America because a plate from Delaware was the gift he had brought me on his first trip to America.  
So years later I ended up with quite A collection of plates.


But this little gift from the Middle East was not a plate - it was an Aladdin's Lamp.







The lamp is metal not plastic - we already had a plastic toy one that Linda had with the genie from the movie Aladdin.

It was not a very expensive item but rather attractive.

Fred knows me well enough to know that I like things that are a little bit different to the norm.


It sits in our dining room most of the time as an ornament but has occasionally been taken with me to be used as a visual aid when I'm speaking at a Kids meeting.


One of the first things I am always asked by the kids is


"Can you make a wish?"


followed by


"Is there anything inside?"



So the lid has to be lifted off and little eyes peer inside only to be disappointed that there is nothing there.







No the lamp is empty.
No it is not a real lamp.
It is not even an expensive item.


BUT


That little lamp reminds me of Fred every time I look at it and it makes me smile.


I don't think that I can get Fred back home by rubbing the lamp and making a wish.

I simply know that one day in a foreign land Fred saw that lamp and bought it for me.

I wasn't with him to make him think of me but he still did.

It makes me grateful that I have a husband who does not forget me when he is travelling with work.

It makes me grateful that I have a husband who cares and thinks about me often.


It makes me think of how God thought about us all the time


God thinks about us at all times. He always has and He always will.


EVEN


when we did not speak with Him,  He still thought of us
when we wanted our own way,  He still thought of us
when we were disobedient,  He still thought of us
when we were not children of God,  He still thought of us
when we were not even born yet,  He still thought of us

EVEN

before the world was created,  He had thought of us


YES

God had thought of us and Jesus was already prepared to die for us







We are 

     delighted 

     excited 

     proud 

     thankful 

     when people think of us, 

     when people remember to include us in their lives.


Should we not be the same because God thinks about us at all times.

He always has and He always will.


ARE WE GRATEFUL BECAUSE 
GOD THINKS ABOUT US 
AND 
LOVES US ALL THE TIME?


















Sunday

Why We Worship 7




I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"


One of the things about God that we may find hard to understand and perhaps never understand fully, but just have to accept that it is true,
 is that 


God 

always has existed 
and 
always will exist

So today I'm thinking about worshipping God because 




We were born and we will die and that is the cycle of life that we understand 
but we are not like God.


He has always existed in the same way: fully and completely as God.


So we must cry




Revelation 4
Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 
The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:  
11“You are worthy, O Lord,To receive glory and honour and power;For You created all things,And by Your will they exist and were created.”







Have you grasped the  "who was and is and is to come" ?

Do you worship Him even though you may not fully understand Him?









Why We Worship 4


I am taking time each week to ask myself

 "Why we worship"








One of the things about God that we may find hard to understand is that God cannot be measured or defined.

Our minds are so finite that we can not really understand that there can possibly be something that is infinite.


Except if you are a Maths teacher as I was and then you have often had to talk about positive and negative numbers both going on to infinity.
 ( I love the symbol used for infinity  ∞ )





infinite adjective
  1. limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate








Isn't that marvellous to think about?  



God has no limits!



So God has no start or finish.




 
                                                                                                       
  
Do you ever ask God to help you appreciate how different He is to us?        










Why We Worship 2





If someone were to ask you today why you worship God would you know how to answer?

We dealt more with that in the first one in the series featuring GOD IS GREAT                             
         Today let's look at                          

Revelation 4 v 10 - 11


        the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.


If the 24 elders who are before the throne of God worship Him because He is worthy then we can not disagree but need to proclaim exactly the same thing now here before we need to do it in Heaven.




   

Some people might say
  
                              "Let's Practice what we will be doing for eternity"
                       
               
 but instead we should say

"Let's worship and let's do it now" 




Let's declare it now "God is Worthy to be praised".



because

                                                         




                                                              now and for eternity.