Living the good life (a look at Eph 2:9)

"For we are God's own handiwork (his workmanship)"

I heard this verse on Sunday morning in church, and since then it has haunted me (in a good way).
It is an amazing few verses when you think about it. We are the Creator of the universes' artwork - his masterpiece. He first dreamed and imagined you and me, and then made us to exact specifications.

Amazing.

Think of how precious any piece of artwork is that you created yourself, especially from scratch. It is hard to place a value on something you invested your heart and soul into.

We each are His precious pieces of art.

"recreated in Christ Jesus (born anew) that we may do good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us"

There is so much inside each one of us - all different gifts and talents that germinate and come alive when Christ infuses our soul. The fact that God has planned our good works is slightly mind blowing.

I mean, if I choose to walk right instead of left did He already know that? But God does not live in our restrictive time frame. He is the 'First and the Last - the Before all and the End of all' (Rev 22:13)

I have found once I seek His will and true relationship with God, things begin to fall into place and 'good work' opportunities arrive on my doorstep. I just need to push open the door. I used to stress SO MUCH about being in His will and doing what I should be doing - really a complete waste of energy when just loving Him is much more enjoyable.

"taking paths which He prepared ahead of time"

I can't count how many times I have set upon a path I thought was right, to then have a screeching red light flash before my eyes.

Another door wedged shut. And a knowing that if you push on this door hard enough, it will open - but you will end up lost.

Or another detour that leads back to where you originally began.

Back to square one.

God is really good at helping us get back on the right path - even if it includes rocky terrain and scary heights. If they are leading to eternity then it is a worthwhile journey.

"that we should walk in them (living the GOOD LIFE which He prearranged and made ready for us to live)"

Anyone I know who has walked away from a life following Christ has not been 'living the good life'. In fact they end up completely miserable on the inside. Once you know the truth it is really difficult to re-brainwash yourself into thinking there is no Creator of your life and the bible is a magnificent fable.

Secrets of the good life begin with knowing Him, seeking His kingdom and His ways. This will bring us back to the paths of life - our own paths - with an abundance of beautiful treasures, breathtaking views and kind-hearted travellers ahead making our journey rich and full in every way.

So, are you 'living the good life'? I hope this verse follows you around for a few days, as it did for me.

In a good way of course.

40 random things about me (because I'm 40!)

I wrote this list late one night when I couldn't sleep, read, or fidget any longer...

1. One of my favourite CD's is "The Best of Queen"

2. I am intrigued by butterflies - amazing how something so beautiful can come from something so ugly...

3. My absolute favourite icecream flavours are macadamia nut / rum & raisin

4. I have watched "Notting Hill" 10 times

5. I have watched "Sound of Music" 20 times (my parents are to blame for this!)

6. My favourite place is to be wherever my family is

7. I love airports - it is the best place to people watch.

8. I don't love eggplants

9. My biggest childhood fear was needles, and the dentist..especially needles AT the dentist!

10. My biggest adult fear was public speaking

11. I could have happily had 10 kids! (100 years ago when it was popular)

12. I can't bake cakes! (or muffins for that matter!)

13. I am very easily distracted - except when reading

14. I love love love bookshops

15. I can't stand any creature without legs (ie eels / worms / slugs / snakes!!)

16. I never was allowed to say the word 'poo' as a child!

17. I lost 65 points going for my automatic licence when I was 17 (shame!)

18. My Dad was an airforce pilot

19. I have no sense of direction (ie especially while navigating)

20. I have watched every episode of Gilligans Island

21. Mum used to give me a bowl glucose powder for afternoon tea (I know...what the?)

22. I won the Grade 2 Talent Quest

23. My great great grandfather discovered Scottsdale, Tasmania!!

24. In 1987 I won a bottle of champagne for winning a downhill skiing obstacle race

25. When I was 8 months pregnant with one of my kids I went jetskiing by myself

26. I once fainted down the stairs in school (when I found out I was getting a needle)

27. My favourite flowers are white carnations

28. I used to sell avocados for pocket money

29. I love doing my housework to Bohemiam Rhapsody

30. I learnt French for 3 years - and on a 3 hour stopover in Paris airport, I stuffed up my only chance to speak French in France by ordering a black coffee instead of a white coffee (cafe au lait!!!!!!!)

31. When I was a little girl I would study ant nests for hours

32. I used to have a milk bottle lid collection

33. My only detention ever was in RE when I lied to the teacher and told her my bible was in my locker and wagged class

34. I always leave the last bite of my sandwich on the plate

35. I had bleached blonde long hair for one month

36. I am extremely accident prone

37. My kids and I cloud watch regularly

Ummmmm running out of random things here

38. I once ate a packet of prunes in one go (don't ask)

39. I once got terribly lost in the streets of Venice - great place to get lost!

40 If I could I would walk everywhere barefoot...or ugh boots in winter

If I don't have love....

Taken from a recent Chuck Swindoll devotional, this adaptation of 1Corinthians 13:1-3 is worth a few reads.... Author unknown.

"If I have the language ever so perfectly and speak like a pundit, and have not the love that grips the heart, I am nothing. If I have decorations and diplomas and am proficient in up-to-date methods and have not the touch of understanding love, I am nothing.

If I am able to worst my opponents in argument so as to make fools of them, and have not the wooing note, I am nothing. If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent plans and wonderful visions, and have not the love that sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads, I am nothing.

If I surrender all prospects, and leaving home and friends and comforts, give myself to the showy sacrifice of a missionary career, and turn sour and selfish amid the daily annoyances and personal slights of a missionary life, and though I give my body to be consumed in the heat and sweat and mildew of India, and have not the love that yields its rights, its coveted leisure, its pet plans, I am nothing, nothing. Virtue has ceased to go out of me.

If I can heal all manner of sickness and disease, but wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of love that is kind, I am nothing. If I write books and publish articles that set the world agape and fail to transcribe the word of the cross in the language of love, I am nothing. Worse, I may be competent, busy, fussy, punctilious, and well-equipped, but like the church at Laodicea—nauseating to Christ."

"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing." 1Cor13:1-3

why worry?

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life.”
Philippians 4:6-7. (TMB)

We all know this verse, but don’t we need it daily? I will never forget the day I had no choice but to get two (yes just two) wisdom teeth pulled out - a big deal to me considering I spent most of my childhood haunted by a fear of dentists and needles. My husband Rick couldn’t even get me out of the car when we pulled up. I felt like in one millisecond I had morphed into little girl Jenny and he was my dad.

Finally after much gentle persuasion followed by Rick finally grabbing my hand and praying for peace (it was obvious I had none) and that I would survive (well of course we both knew I would but it was nice to hear him ask God to spare my life), I finally got out and had no choice but to face my fears. There was no pulling out (well actually there was...) as Rick had already driven off, and if I had run home it would have been obvious I was a complete chicken….so I definitely could have used Philippians 4:6-7 last week!

I love verse 7 in the Amplified:

“And God’s peace (shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace) which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

The meaning of garrison is a ‘military post which is permanently stationed’. Using the verb it means to assign troops to a post. So when you look at that verse again, when you pray, God’s peace will be stationed permanently and be assigned to guard your heart and mind. That is powerful! You have an army at your beck and call, night and day!

Worry and anxiety can be crippling emotionally and spiritually. As a mum I find it hard sometimes to squash those daily cares and situations which arise at any given time before they become imbedded in my head as a source of worry. How hard, yet how vital, is it to then displace those thoughts and replace them with peace?

Its fine when life is coasting along at a leisurely pace, the sun is shining and the chickens are laying…no worries! But when you get that phone call that turns your world upside down, the bills start arriving daily, you unsuspectingly visit the dentist and find out he’s going to rip your teeth out one by one…you can almost see the dark clouds rising on the horizon drifting closer and closer.

When you’re going through the dark valley you realise why all those verse in the Bible are there. Those verses you skimmed over last time you read Psalms soothe the soul this time around. For every season in our life there is a verse written just for you, for this moment, ‘living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit….’ (Heb 12:4)

So with so much going on in each of our worlds, every day, try to remember this humble verse on peace versus worry. I promise I will too!

“I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” Philippians 4:8 (TMB)

For the record, I bravely survived the trauma of what seemed like the 'needle from hell' being inserted into half my mouth tissue, but still to this day do not understand why the receptionist allowed me to wander unassisted into the chemist shop (and beyond) after being administered half the surgery's allocation of happy gas. I don't recall talking to the chemist. Slurring, drooling & groaning are the first words that come to mind. Not that I would have given up happy gas for anything that day!

on getting a life verse

Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy. 1Peter1:8 AMP

When I was a new Christian at sixteen, I would lie on my bed thinking about the church service that night and wonder how I could somehow find proof that God was real. It was a turning point in my faith because I was making a decision to either go forward with my Christianity or turn away. I was discouraged because I felt like all my prayers were bouncing off the ceiling, and I would stare out of my bedroom window at the million stars in the sky, and wonder how I really mattered in the whole scheme of the galaxy.

I finally decided to thumb through my bible and did the all favourite flick and point. I landed on 1 Peter, and my eyes went straight to verse 8. ‘Though having not seen you love….’

And that was the point in question. How do you love someone you cannot see?

It all seemed to click from that point on. I read and reread that verse for ages until the words were cemented into my brain. 1Peter 1:8 became my life verse, and I based the foundation of my faith in God on those words.

There's nothing like the inexpressible joy from heaven to keep you going even when things don’t make sense!

I made a decision to love and believe in Him no matter what, and I think if it wasn’t for that moment in time I don’t know if I could have weathered some of the storms that were ahead of me, even decades later.

What is your life verse? Do you have one? I felt like God handpicked that one just for me. It seemed to jump out of the Bible and hit me in the face.

I went through a soul searching time recently, because life had become so busy that I felt like those special moments with Him were harder to find. (Yesterday I woke up at 5am to a spewing child, and he was still going at 5pm!) I have never wanted to lose my first love, and the excitement I had when I was a new Christian. But to keep that alive you have to continue to seek Him in imaginative ways!

My favourite story is of Susannah Wesley (Charles & John Wesley’s mum). With 19 children to think about one of the ways she spent time with God was underneath her apron in the corner of her kitchen. Thankfully we don’t have to resort to that (I hope!)

So dig up your life verse, and maybe this week think back to the early days when you first found out about the gift of salvation, and the One who loves you.

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation. (Message Bible Version)

A light on my path

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Proverbs 6:23

How well known is this verse?! Yet we need to know it backwards as it is the essence of God’s direction for us. The Word of God is so important and vital to our existence that we need it as the light source for our journey through life, and as a steady compass as we take one hesitant step ahead of the other.

I few years ago my Rachael & I went on a 'mum & daughter' trip to New Zealand, and while we were in Queenstown enjoying the view from the side of a mountain (as you do) I noticed a path leading into the forest behind us. We were at the top of the Gondola and the path was behind the luge just begging to be explored. (the luge is a number of paths winding down the side of the mountain, and you jump on a go cart and the idea is to speed down as fast as you can. Unfortunately my go cart broke half way down. That’s another story…)

It had just snowed that morning, and as we wandered into the darkness of the snow capped pine trees Rach was starting to worry. She stopped and wanted to go back to the luge where it seemed safer. It was true, there was no one else around, we didn’t exactly know where we were going, and there were also no immediate signs. However, the thrill of not knowing, but just following and trusting the path for whatever lay ahead was too great!

Rach made me promise we wouldn’t get lost, and after that she began to enjoy the beauty of the walk. It felt like we had arrived in Narnia with the snow and pine needles under our feet, and such a peaceful stillness that you could hear the water trickling further ahead. Soon we were taking photos, singing and excited about what was around the corner.

After about five minutes walking along this trail we came out to an opening to the most incredible scenery I have seen in a long time. Row upon row of majestic snow capped mountains that went as far as the eye could see, and a sign that said we were on the ‘Ben Lomond Track’ that went on and on around mountains ahead of us. We stood there for ages appreciating the view, and so thankful we had kept going despite not knowing where we were headed.

Isn’t that like our walk with God? He has the most amazing, indescribable life planned for us, but in the shadows of the trees when we can’t see the view ahead, and no one else seems to be around, it doesn’t seem as exhilarating. You can’t see the signs and you just have to hold on to His hand and take one step in front of the other, trusting that you are on the right path and soon there will be an opening that makes your sacrifices and every footstep worthwhile.

He knows best, and just enjoying where you are on the path of life, making sure that the Word of God is your light source is truly the best way to live. And you’re guaranteed spectacular views along the way, especially at the end!

“My steps have held closely to Your paths (to the tracks of the One Who has gone on before); my feet have not slipped.” Psalm 17:5