The light in the night.

"What I'm getting at, friends, .... Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.... Go out into the world , ...a breath of fresh air .....Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night "Philippians 2:13-16: The Message

If ever there was a time to hear good news , it is today, right now.

Have you stopped today to:

• look up at the clouds and see the blue sky
• listen to the birds singing
• noticed the beautiful fragrance in the flowers

• been grateful that you had a good meal last night
• said thank you that you had a bed to sleep in
• celebrated that you woke up to a new morning today

• been excited that you are loved,
• yes, loved by a majestic and heavenly Father
• He is alive and well and in control of every area of our lives,
• You and I don't have to worry , all we have to do is accept His love for us.

Praying blessing into your life today.

Amen

I'm not just a number !

I'm not just a number......this is what I read on a poster as I walked into work.

It rang a chord, or shall I say "dis-chord". How many times have I found myself in earthly slavery and bondage under the guise of the Corporation. How many times have you found yourself crying out that same plea, I am not just a number and tried to convince yourself that you really do matter to the business and hoped that someone would stop and notice ? The rewards are few and far between and sometimes the recognition just never materialises, not even a small gesture of being thanked. A senior staff member I have worked for once, even referred to the people as "bums on seats", how degrading.

This world of commercialism, company mergers and acquisitions, business take-overs, outsourcing and managed services, survives many times by the ugly head of exploitation rearing up onto it's hind legs and manipulating, controlling and emotionally blackmailing or guilt tripping you into just giving more and more and more of yourself and resulting in you sacrificing things that are important and precious times with people that really matter. The enemy is subtle in his robberies. It's an exploitation with an ugly face, one that sacrifices people for profits.

As a manager of various resources, people are key to the solutions and deliveries that are demanded from the business environment that I work in. Daily, I am challenged by the spoken and unspoken needs of the people I work with. The one that cries out at me, is the one that I find often the most difficult to share (by God's strength I am being given the words to now speak out, and share this blessing) ...... and yet, it is the greatest and most precious gift, powerful solution and recognition and reward of all. It is the love of God for us (John 3:16)

I am learning that as God's Holy Spirit is at work in my life, He bubbles over inside me and I have to let Him out......

He has the answers !
He understands it all
He knows our needs and weaknesses
He reveals our imperfections in a loving way-
and then He has the lessons
He guides and steers us
He heals all the hurts
He binds all the wounds
He gives us New Life
He is the Solution (John 11: 25)

My God loves you ... and you... and you.... and yes, even me, warts and all. Won't you give Him the chance to be that answer in your life so that along with me you can stand on the roof tops and shout:

I am not just a number, I am a child of the God most High and my place under His wings with Him, is for eternity.

Hallelujah !!

Deliver your love lettter

We live in a parched and thirsty land, a land that is hungering and doesn't know what it hungers for..... a time when the earth is dry and barren and a sense of darkness prevails. People are searching and are burdened and barely have time to smile. They brush past each other without so much as a second glance. There is not time to lend a helping hand and spend a few minutes listening.

There is an urgent longing for a sense of reality and authenticity in a world filled with gloss, glamour, sensationalism and smokescreens.

Everyday in every area of our lives that you turn to and and every newspaper, tv channel, radio broadcast you watch or read echoes the same headlines. It's all pretty much a picture of doom and gloom, sadness, fear and destruction.

So how in the midst of all this can you even begin to cast your mind into an area of beauty, or even more so, how can you think of delivering a "Letter of love" ?

Today, nothing is needed more than a portrait of Jesus Christ, love itself. God's urgent nudge to us today is to take the message of the love of Christ and the love of God our Father out to the desolate, hungry and helpless in our world and to share with them this incredible message of hope and love and life eternal.

He instructs us in 2 Corinthians 3: 3 :" You.. are a letter from Christ... written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.." We just need to be bold enough to take Him into our everyday lives in our everyday world and He will use us as His "love letters" to deliver His message to His people.

This is a time for action and not to be quiet, a time to stand up and be counted as one of His own in spreading the Big story of His love and the hope we have in Him through faith in Jesus Christ.


====Selah====

Life changing Profit

If you think this article is about financial profit, let me explain that whilst the world is in a financial recession, it isn't in money that we find the answers or the solutions.

Money comes and goes! Even for those who invest it seemingly "wisely" in the eyes of the world and store up huge bank accounts and investment portfolios in any number of guilts, bonds, securities, trusts and range of financial instruments, it is a passing material wealth. It has high value and as valuable currency is only applicable to life here on earth. The real truth is it is a useless currency and has no value in the Kingdom of heaven.

I worked in the heart of London, in the financial centre of the City - where the heartbeat and pulse of the financial institutions, was its bankers, investment managers and portfolio managers.... and their ability to gamble and make money and more profit and more money and more profit as they played with hedge funds, futures and options..... until one day, it all came crashing down.

The outcry and outcome as thousands of people lost their security blankets reached far and wide and impacted homes across the country and the world; and in a few instances a few even lost their lives, unable to cope with the burden and pressures of their financial losses taking their own lives. How could this be part of God's plans that He has to prosper us and to grow us ? This is not the life changing profit I have dreamt of. Wherever we go, there is always a financial transaction involved but do we want to invest in a financial transaction for profit that leads to a path of destruction, despair, anger and hopelessness?

Where is the "key" then that unlocks this Life changing Profit if it is not in material wealth? Have you ever considered that it is not about your wealth but about the wealth of others around you and what you are doing as your part in building God's Kingdom?

As you deposit of your time and energy, other things can become richer. Examine this in the context of what is in your immediate world and sphere of influence.....a family member or a friend. They may have a desperate need. How aware are you of that need and are you willing to get alongside them? If you give of yourself and give of your time to them, your relationship can have an opportunity to flourish and become richer. You may be making a deposit into their lives at a crucial turning point or a life-changing moment.

God has blessed you and loves you, continually making huge deposits into your life and if you share that blessing or pass it on, you are making a life lasting deposit. Isn't that an investment worth making? Taking your experience and depositing into someone else's life, is what life changing profit is all about.

Our God has invested so much in you and me and His investments never end...... now it's our turn to enable some life changing profit in the lives of those around us as we follow God's will in extending His kingdom and letting Him use us as His instruments for investment.

Selah