I Love the Colour Blue - Coffee & Conversation

Anyone who is around me for any length of time,

      anyone who just even looks at my blog,

           anyone who sees round our home

                can take a good guess

                     that one of the

                          "Things I Love"

just has to be

                    the colour  BLUE.

There is just something about the colour blue that I feel almost everything looks better in blue.

Blue and white together just make everything look so clean & fresh.

My Dining Room is Blue, White and silver with my dinner set of white with blue matching it 

My Living room has accent colours in blue

as well as curtains and cushions with a blue flower.

Our Sun Room's main colour is blue

My outdoor plant pots are blue

Our Patio Furniture is blue and white

My study (where I spend a lot of time) is decorated with pale blue walls and darker blue curtains.


A lot of my clothes are in shades of Blue.



Blue is a refreshing colour.

Blue is a relaxing colour.

Blue is a beautiful colour.

Blue is also an alive colour.

As long as things are made in blue there will be a happy contentment in my life.


People say Blue is a cold colour but not for me.

Blue never makes me blue, it always makes me brighten up.



The family tease me about the colour blue but then most of them have a favourite colour too - a colour they just feel contented with the one their eyes are drawn to when they go to buy clothes or decor for the home.

We are all different with different favourite colours, styles of clothes, jobs, home decor, cars, etc.

God has given us a variety of everything including colours.

If we were not different and unique we would never understand how we could be unique to God but we are and he knows more about us than we do ourselves.

He has given me a great sense of pleasure, contentment and peace in a simple thing like the colour Blue.

Can you stop and reflect on the uniqueness of what God has given you pleasure, contentment & peace in?

10 Bible Verses of Encouragement on The Promises of God - plus FREE PRINTABLE

We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.

In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage us all around the topic of God's Promises.

I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in. 

I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.

So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to turn to in times when we need to be encouraged about those Promises God has made to us.

Because these are

 

1. God's Faithfulness

Deuteronomy 7 v 9

Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, 

the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations 

with those who love him and keep his commandments. 

God is faithful to keep His covenant (promise) with all those who love and obey Him.

When we read about the Covenant God made with His people in the Old Testament we can see how sacred and important He considered it to be.

2. God's Presence

Joshua 1 v 9

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, 

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 

Many times we just quote the latter part of this verse and in fact when we were leaving Northern Ireland to go and live in Belgium and feeling rather inadequate because I did not speak French or Dutch I was given this lovely picture below and I have loved having it as a reminder of this promise of God ever since.

3. God's Guidance

Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye. 

God has promised to teach us the way to go through this life.

He has promised to be our guide. 

4. God's Strength

Isaiah 40:31

But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; 

They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.  

Look at all the benefits spoken of here in this verse yet only one thing is required of us  -  to wait on the Lord.

Take the time to just wait on God, read His Word, think on His Word, memorize His Word, hold it close to our hearts and we will know these benefits.

5. God's Care & Help

Isaiah 41:13

For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand.
Saying to you, 

'Fear not, I will help you.' 

God cares enough to hold our hands through everything, He is promising to care for us and help us and will do not need to be afraid.

6. God's Mercy

Isaiah 54:10

For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,”

Says the Lord, who has mercy on you. 

God has promised we will never be without his kindness and peace because He has mercy on us and that mercy is forever and ever - even when this world is over. 

7. God's Love

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believes on him should not perish 

but have everlasting life. 

God has promised to love us forever and the outworking of that is His gift of Salvation for us when we put our trust in Him. 

8. God's Provision

John 6:35

Then Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. 

He who comes to me shall never hunger, 

and he who believes in me shall never thirst." 

We never have to worry about anything because God is all-sufficient and can provide us with everything we need in our Spiritual Life.

9. God's Heaven is our Hope

John 14:2

In My Father's house are many mansions; 

if it were not so, I would have told you. 

I go to prepare a place for you. 

God has promised the greatest thing of all - HOPE - an eternity in His Presence that He prepared for each one of us.

10. God's Peace

John 14:27

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. 

While we are still here on earth we do not need to be worried or anxious about what will happen as times change and governments change.

God through the words of Jesus has promised us His Peace.

You can download this FREE copy of the Bible Verse Graphics I made for this blog post 

from my

 

RESOURCE LIBRARY HERE AT Sandra's Ark

Sunday Scripture - Hebrews 12 v 14

Sunday Scripture is just simply a thought or two on a Bible verse that may have struck me afresh or maybe for the first time or has always been special to me.

Today I am looking at Hebrews 12 v 14

The first thing that struck me when I was considering the verse for this week was the fact that within each of the last 3 verses in this Sunday Scripture series, there is a mention of one of the Fruit of the Spirit.

The first one had PATIENCE,

                 the second one had JOY

                       and now this one has PEACE.

I don't think this is a coincidence because the Fruit of the Spirit is very important in our lives and we should show this daily.


The other main word in this verse is HOLINESS.


I believe that there are two relationships here in this verse, the PEACE in is about the relationship between us and others and the HOLINESS is about the relationship between us and God.


Yet the two cannot be completely distinct from each other.

How can we possibly expect to be sanctified and lead holy lives if we do not live in Peace?


How can we who are naturally sinful and selfish live in peaceful relationships if we do not have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us each day as He helps us to live and grow more like Jesus?

What do we need for a true relationship with God and man?

Our Christianity cannot be complete if we do not have 

the right relationship with man and with God.

We are not to be completely apart from the world but we are to be God's representatives in the world showing peace and holiness to touch the lives of others.

In other words we are to be Christlike as we live with the hope of coming into the presence of Christ Himself.  And that links back again to that earlier Sunday Scripture that also mentioned patience.

Today's verse is a strong word on how we should live towards God and towards man and if we learn to live holy lives then the peace will be there as a result.  We cannot be holy and yet at odds with others, the peace will be the outworking of the holiness and through this the fruit of the Spirit will be seen.

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 5

Today is the last day of Advent.

The last time to consider the four words we have looked at through this time of Advent.

Our last update on the Advent reading plan 

Day 24.        1 John 3:7 & 8

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

He that commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came into the world to help us to stop sinning and to be our substitutionary sacrifice, taking away God's wrath if we do sin.

We received a lot of cards which wished us a Merry Christmas and some took words from a carol or mentioned the shepherds, wise men, angels, star etc.

Here I have picked out 4 of the cards we received which highlighted the four words of Advent

HOPE

LOVE

JOY

PEACE

May I wish you the true 
Hope, Love, Joy and Peace 
that Jesus brought on the first Christmas 
and still brings to us as we trust in Him.

I took some time last week to sit and listen to an old Christmas Music collection that my son had found on YouTube.

It was a compilation of Christmas songs by Max Bygraves which my kids used to listen to on the way to school with their cousins.  Their uncle played this same album in the car all through December every year and they all used to moan and groan about it but now it has turned into a fond Christmas memory.

On You tube it is in several parts to cover the whole album, the first part is here if you want to have a listen.






That is something that Christmas does in us, it stirs up memories.

Today I was thinking about how the memory of the first Christmas with Jesus coming to live on earth in God's plan of Salvation brought Mary to the anticipation of this Salvation.

Then how the memory of working alongside Jesus and knowing Him gave the disciples the faith to proclaim the Saviour and that He would return one day.

And because we know God's word came true about Jesus coming to be the Saviour of the world then we can trust that His word will come true about the return of Jesus too.

So the first Christmas leads us to the anticipation of the return of Jesus hence the celebration of Advent, where we are awaiting His Coming.

           Advent means arrival or appearance

Are you awaiting His arrival or appearance ?  

Have you trusted in Jesus and believe when He said He would come again?

What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 4

This is the Fourth & last Sunday of Advent.

We are in the time of the year when 

is one of the things we talk about.  Today in church I spoke to the children about Peace because the story in Sunday School was about the Angel's Proclamation to the Shepherds.  

The other day there was a small explosion in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast, Northern Ireland (my country of residence again now and my country of birth).  

A bomb had been left outside a restaurant very close to St. Anne's Cathedral and and warning phoned in to the police.  While the nearby residents and the diners in the restaurants were being evacuated part of the device blew up but not enough to do any real damage or injury.

The Cathedral and all the people nearby were safe and sound but many of the comments of people who were there at that time is now anger and unrest about whether we really do have peace in Northern Ireland.

As I said above we are in the time of the year when Peace is one of the things we talk about, Peace on Earth, wishing you Peace at Christmas, Have the Peace of God in your hearts.

But so many people are going around every day without this peace in their hearts.  

I believe this is simply because they can't believe that Peace is an easy thing to have. They think that it would be a complicated matter to make this type of change in their lives.  

Thankfully God has made it easy for us because He is the one who brings about this Peace through His Son Jesus.  

Our easy part is just to stop resisting and accept that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to be our Peace.  Of course if we keep edging Jesus out of the picture at Christmas then it is harder to even draw our thoughts to Him let alone trust that He will be the way to Peace this Christmas. 

A couple of years ago I chose this Christmas card (below) that has the message I wanted to send, a message that I feel strongly about and also I loved the look of the card, simple but eye-catching at the same time.  I loved the card so much that I kept one so that each year I can display it.  I have even written on it from Fred & Sandra, because I want to continue to send this message to myself as well.

So this card is sitting at the front left hand side of the TV this year and will remind us of that special message.

   There is no Christmas without Jesus and there is no Peace without Him too.

Here is a very quick Advent video on Peace.






Do you keep Jesus at the heart of Christmas?

We have a true high Priest in Jesus

We have a Saviour who is at the right hand of God

We have a mediator in Jesus

We have life because Jesus came 

We know that Jesus Christ is Lord

We know that God gave Jesus to bring freedom and Joy 

We know that Jesus wants to send us to others 

We know that Jesus has the power over Satan so that we can be free

Are you still enjoying this time of preparation in the run up to Christmas?


Our oldest son Jonathan arrives from England very Soon!


So you can all guess some of the things I was up to this past week but some of the others might surprise you.

• A bedroom had to be dusted and hoovered.
• An ensuite had to be cleaned.
• A bed had to be made.
• A check of "plain biscuits" (this son nibbles on plain biscuits regularly throughout the day).
• A check of "Northern Ireland Tea" (this son always goes back home with a supply of Northern Ireland Punjana Tea which is hard to get in England).
• A certain Agatha Christie Poirot novel had to be started (the two of us are looking forward to sitting down one day to watch "Curtain" which I recorded when it was on ITV a few weeks ago and we had decided to reread the book first).

I bet you didn't guess the last 3 things!

It will feel even more like Christmas once Jonathan arrives as no doubt there will be renditions of

                                                                                      

which is His favourite Advent hymn.

I think there may also be

Lots of talk about 

blogs as he is also a blogger

church as he is a Pastor

books as he is an avid reader

food as he loves to eat.

Of course I can say all this because I know him so well.

Which makes me think about something Fred & I and a couple of friends were talking about last night. 

How can we express ourselves towards Jesus if 

we do not 

know Him well.  

Surely we will run out of words to describe Him, 

to praise Him 

and 

to worship Him.

Do you know Him well?