Why We Worship 20

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

Have you ever thought about how thankful we should be that God is not like us?

Have you ever thought about how we are meant to become like Him and not the other way round?

I am so glad that He is not to become like us because we are flawed.

God is not flawed because 

Just think about that, 

                       
                            that means

there is not one thing wrong with our God.

No matter what we do we will never be perfect as only God is perfect so we know that the verse above does not mean just exactly as it sounds.

However God does want something from us.

The previous few verses in that chapter of the Gospel of Matthew will help us.

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

We are to do the things that are more unnatural for humans to do.

We are to show the love and goodness of God to others by being different to the norm in this world.

We are to have a different attitude toward others because God has instructed us to be like Him.

We are to walk in the ways of God.

I am thankful that God is Perfect because this means we can fully trust Him?

5 Essentials Items for Any Kitchen

One of the best ways to make our work in the kitchen less of a hassle is really to make it

 easier to do 

 or 

 quicker to do 

 or

 both.

One way to do this is to have some simple but very practical tools.

I have picked out 

5 things that I automatically think of 

when I am considering  what I use often or a lot of to make things easier for me around the house.

Yes these are

5 Things I Don't Think I want to have to do Without.

1.  Clip-its



Both IKEA and Lakeland have really good sturdy clip-its and in a good variety of sizes.

However you can buy them almost anywhere now but they may not be just as good a grip.

How can we seal many bags without some of these???


USES
Bread bags
Bags in freezer
Large crisp bags





2.  Long Handled Spoons



LAKELAND sell them but I have also bought them from pound stores

I have some that are bent so that they will sit on the edge of a mug or glass and some that are plain but I also have 2 (not pictured here) that I got in South Korea that have a larger wider spoon part whereas the others are more of a teaspoon size.

Who doesn't need something with a long handle to do some scooping???


USES
Tall glass ice cream sundaes
Large coffee mugs
Getting to the bottom of jars of jam etc.






3.    Kitchen Scissors



LAKELAND, IKEA, Pound stores and  any supermarket now.

Different colours and sizes available, but do get ones with a good comfortable grip because if you get hooked like me you will use them constantly.  

Who doesn't have lots of occasions when it is so much easier to cut with scissors than to chop with a knife???     Well Not Tomatoes anyway!

USES
Lots of meats and vegetables are actually easier to cut using the scissors than a knife.
So convenient for cutting foods into foods already cooking on the stove.
Also how else do you open those horrible strong plastic bags that seem to stretch as you try to pull them apart?






4.    Silicone Basting Brushes

LAKELAND and also in pound stores.

The round ones I have found to be softer and more flimsy.
But the flat ones I absolutely adore.

Who wants to battle with pieces of greased proof paper or kitchen towels to try to grease items???


USES
Oiling and basting roasts
Putting lime or lemon juice on fish
Spreading jam or any other similar mixture on cakes etc.
Greasing dishes.





5.   Resealable Bags



IKEA have the best and at such a good price. 

These ones seal easily and well not like some others you can find other places.

They have two different boxes you can buy with two different sizes of bag in each so between all four sizes you are equipped for just about any eventuality.

Great to have bags that seal so well that the contents don't leak over everything else in the fridge or freezer and bags that can be reused over and over again.



USES
DIY accessories like screws.
Transporting any type of food stuffs.
I have never tried soup in one but thicker foodstuffs are fine.
Freezer use as well as fridge use.

I reckon you could tell me of a few things you don't want to have to do without either.  If so let me know in a comment.

The Third Coffee Mug - A Dose of Encouragement

I love to read little phrases that may be clever or humorous 

and I love going round craft shops or gift shops.  

        One day in Cookstown many years ago, I found a nice shop and spent an enjoyable time wandering round picking out some very early Christmas presents. 

          
        
The shop had a great display of mugs and of course I found one which I couldn’t resist.  

Firstly its design was in blue (which is by far my favourite colour I even wrote a post on it "I Love The Colour Blue" and I would probably have everything in my house blue if Fred would let me) and secondly the words on it amused me.  
        
         It read  

                      “I would get organised except it would only confuse everyone”. 

I bought it for my husband Fred because he told me that his desk at work was always a mess and I thought he could use the mug at work.  However the nice blue design was rather a floral design and I felt that Fred might not appreciate it, so I kept it for myself.  

          Anyway, I was always trying to get organised, I had a small two drawer filing cabinet in the kitchen, two drawers of my roll-top desk were filing drawers and the large drawer at the bottom of the computer armoire was also a filing drawer.  With all of these you would think that all our papers etc. would be organised and nothing misplaced or forgotten about; but no! 

                     
Even though 

                                                   

 I rarely end up completely organised.

In fact I'm pretty good at starting and not finishing things.  I'm good at getting everything out to rearrange cupboards etc. and taking ages to get it all back in again.

Fred often asks me why it is that every time I say I am sorting out something, he finds me in the middle of a mess.  

            
 My answer is 

 "you can’t tidy up properly without making a mess".  

I know that sounds stupid but it makes sense to me. 

When you are organising things you need to have piles or boxes for 

• Things you will throw out
• Things you will donate or give away
• Things to keep
• Things you like and know you don't really need but you don't want to part with.

Some day I will have a 

                                                                            

 but not just now.  

The only problem is that this can often affect my spiritual life too. 

• When to read the Bible?
• Where to read the Bible?
• What to read in the Bible?
• When to pray?
• Where to pray?
• What to pray about?
• When to study?
• How to study?

I kept thinking I must organise how I read, pray and study the bible; so then I would want to try to plan it all out in advance and decide when the best time was and method was but then I would get started and change my mind.


Let’s face it if I tried to wait until I got all that organized perfectly,

then I’d never be found in a quiet place with God.

So I knew I could not have it just perfectly organised and instead 

I just had to do it.

because otherwise I would never learn from the promises, love, mercy, grace, compassion of Jesus and the instructions God has given us.

Of course that was all years ago when I had the kids at home, I was working and Fred travelled a lot with work so perhaps the reason for not being properly organised was due to all of that.  

So now then when the kids are grown and away from home and  I am not working things can be organised perfectly can't they?

   No, not at all, it is just the same now as then.

(except I don't have that coffee mug now because it got broken some years ago)  

and I know


I just have to do it.

So I'm thankful God doesn't wants us to do it absolutely perfectly

 but just wants us to do it to the best of our ability and His Holy Spirit

 will help us with the rest.

Are you like me?
Or perhaps you have no problems at all with organising your quiet times with God.

Why We Worship 19

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

Do you know that God loves to give us what we don't deserve?

•  He loves to pardon our sin.
•  He loves to be good to us.
•  He loves to give us His Gifts.
•  He loves to extend His Mercy to us.

And really we don't deserve any of this.

This is all because 

What does this mean?



It simply means that :

• Jesus the Son of God took our place.
• Jesus the Son of God bore our punishment.
• Jesus the Son of God gave His life for us.

And He did it for our benefit not His.

No wonder we sing and talk about God's Grace being AMAZING.

Of course the verse above is not actually a full sentence.

So let's look at the full sentence here in verses 11 - 14.

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,

12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 

13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 

14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Because of the Grace God has shown us we then need to react by turning from our ungodly ways to God's Way and look forward to seeing Jesus who has made this all possible.  

We are to be His own special people and ready to do good just as He does.

I am very thankful for God's Grace  -  aren't you?

Did I pray too Hard? - A Dose of Encouragement

If you read any of my blog posts last year you may have noticed that I have mentioned a few times that

 I am Petite

I am 5 foot and half an inch tall.

I was usually the smallest or second smallest in my class at school and the youngest or second youngest as well.

I was the younger of two girls in our family with my sister being 10 years older than me and no brothers.

If you have read the Dose of Encouragement entitled "What a Face!"  you will know a bit about how I started going out with my husband  (if not click on the pic. below).

But I don't think I mentioned in that story that Fred is 6 foot tall so you can imagine the difference in our heights but if not, just have a look at the family pictures on my about me page.

All of my life I have never been allowed to forget that I am small.

My grandmother was a widow from long before I was born so she lived with us and right up to her death (a year after Fred and I were married) she referred to me as 

"the wee one" 

and this has been something my sister likes to remember.

My sister also loved to tease me about how I would need a step ladder to be able to reach up to kiss Fred, when we were going together.

After 5 years of marriage I got pregnant and we were very happy.  



I did have one concern and that was 

"what if the baby took after me and was small?"

So I prayed that my child would not be small like me, especially if this was a boy but also if the child was a girl, I just didn't want this child to feel as I had often felt (see "I Am Petite")

When Jonathan was born he was only 6 lb 6 oz but he was a long thin baby so I thought that this might be an indication that he would not be small.  However I continued to pray and sometimes mentioned to Fred that I was praying about this.

2 years later and we had another boy, Daniel who was heavier and about the same in length and I had already started praying about his height also.  

Then 3 years after that we had a girl and Linda was the heaviest of the three but not just as long as the boys had been.

You can probably guess that I had started praying about her height too before she was born.

As they got older we did as most parents do with their kids; we measured their heights on a wall chart.  We laughed often as we would see Jonathan sprouting up taller and then suddenly Daniel would catch up and they would be the same height for a while and then Jonathan would be taller again, and then the process would happen repeatedly.

When the boys were teenagers it was obvious that they were not going to be short so I was thankful that God had answered my prayers about them.  Then it was not long before Linda was taller than me and that made we very happy.

When Jonathan stopped growing he was just a little shorter than his father but by that time Daniel was taller than Jonathan and was gradually inching above Fred.  Even in his early twenties Daniel was still growing and when he finally stopped he was some inches taller than his dad.  Linda is also some inches taller than me so just a nice height and not too tall for a girl.

So if you look at the picture on the about me page you will know that Daniel is the one at the back of the group (that picture was taken at his wedding last year) and you can see what a difference there is between him and me, not just 12 inches but more like 15 inches.

What can I say other than  

Yes I also prayed for the health of my children and their education and understanding and everything else about them and still do, but I also believe that God knows what each of us feel and think at all times and He does give us 

the desires of our hearts

Now I know I am not taking a verse out of context here and not just being trite about this verse. 

This was a desire of my heart, something that meant a lot to me and God saw this, but He also knew that it was not out of greed that I made this request, it was not even really for my benefit instead it was for my children.

The verse comes from this passage

3Trust in the LORD, and do good; 

     so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed.

4Delight yourself also in the LORD; 

     and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

5Commit your way unto the LORD; 

     trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

and must be taken along with the verses around it and if I was being selfish or greedy then I would not be living as the rest of this dictates.

There are three words in that passage and we must obedient

 to TRUST, DELIGHT & COMMIT

I definitely committed this desire to the Lord and He brought it to pass.

I am so thankful that God cares about the desires of our hearts.

The only thing is sometimes I joke with Fred saying that 

"Maybe I prayed too hard because Daniel is so tall now".

Have you taken the desires of your heart to God or have you just hidden them in your heart?

Why We Worship 18

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

Righteousness is the state of moral perfection God requires of us to be able to enter Heaven.

The Ten Commandments show us how far we are from reaching this standard that God has set us.  We know we could never keep all His laws completely.

because He is SINLESS

But we are SINFUL.



So it would seem there is no way that we can enter Heaven.

However God has a solution for our problem.




Jesus is God and is also Righteous because He is Sinless.

God has told us in the Bible that He will apply Christ's perfect righteousness to us imperfect human beings when we believe that Jesus is Lord and trust fully in Him.

The only way that God cannot punish us for our sinfulness is if we have someone to be our substitute and take on our sin and punishment which is what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

This is God's Plan of Salvation for all of us and it is a free Gift.
We just need to accept that Jesus has stepped in to be our Saviour.

So Salvation for us is not through anything we can do for ourselves but through the righteousness of Jesus.

Christ's righteousness is accredited to us and makes us holy before God.

I am thankful that there was a way for me to be acceptable to God because Jesus bore my sins on the cross and gave me His Righteousness.



I am also thankful that my Father in Heaven is Righteous and can never be found at fault.

Have you accepted this gift of Salvation through Jesus?

Can you worship God because He is Righteous and has made you righteous?