Serena’s Wordpress Installation

“I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: “Now God’s home is with mankind. He will live with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them, and He will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain.

To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it.”

Dear Father God, Be thou my vision, o Lord of my heart….. Help me to see everyone around me as You see them, and love them the way You love me. Forgive me for the many times I have failed to do that. I can’t do it without You, and I have not been as faithful in turning to You as I should. Please forgive me. Help me to place all my hopes, my faith and my ambitions at the foot of Your throne. Help me to use my talents for You. I love You my Father God, please help to love You more. In Jesus’ name, Amen

“Its rider is called Faithful and True. His name is The Word of God. On his robe and on his thigh was written the name: King of Kings and Lord of lords.”

At last, things start to turn around. Babylon falls, heaven opens and Jesus comes, followed by the armies of heaven, on white horses dressed in clean white linen. They defeat the forces of satan and throw satan into the lake of fire.

Dear Father God, Thank you for being with me this past fortnight. Please be with my family and particularly with my dad. Please give him strength and comfort. I love You my Father God, please help me be with You at Christ’s wedding feast, dressed in the white that my saviour earned me. Please help me do Your work here on earth. Thank You for P, for A and for C. Thank You my Father God. Please also be with our new government in Britain, please give them wisdom to help this country in perilous times. Please also be with the people who made up the departing government, particularly Gordon Brown and his wife, and help them to find positive futures. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Well reading Revelation while also undergoing spiritual battles and battles with pain and then election battles has just put me back into my warrrior mode. It’s all being channelled through my feelings about the British election, which technically I really shouldn’t care all that much about.

Yet I find myself being outraged and upset about things that I should just be able to walk away from (although to be fair of course I am a recovering political junkie, never more than one poll away from being tempted away from my loves to the unreal world of spin and media… good thing really that the BBC coverage was so rubbish or the forbidden fruit may have been even more tempting)

Anyway, here I am coloring even my bible reading with my political anger - except I think it is just anger in general at the unfairness of life and how out of kilter everything is, with no clear way to set it right. Anger that mankind is not equipped to make it right.

It’s hard knowing all the battles are going on - elsewhere. Why was I made like this, such a battle-hungry believer? How am I meant to reconcile my talent of putting the boots on and waging wars of words with my belief in Christ’s way, which is about rejecting words and submissively following. Am I meant to chafe through my life, always biting back from the battle - or is that hiding my light under a bushel? I know I must be kind and humble and patient and moderate to follow in my Lord’s footsteps, and I place all my ambition before him, but am I also meant to use my talents in battle for Him? If so, how?

Or is this all just a way of me safely (and wierdly, it’s true) playing out the sadness that I am having difficulty facing? I think really it’s more than that. I need to know if I am meant to have more direction than mothering, if that is what God plans for me.

Separate note: One of the things I’ve found confusing about today’s chapters is that the commentary I am reading on Revelation says the incident with the Woman and the Dragon is about Christ’s time on earth - yet right from the start of the Revelation the Lamb, Christ, has already been sacrificed for our sins - so that is not in order.

John is prophesying - so why is he prophesying the gospel - which had already happened. Surely there is another explanation!

Dear Father God, You are amazing and I love You. I wish I knew You better so I could know You more and love You more. Please light my path for me. Show me where I am veering off course  and put me back on Your path. Please forgive me my sins and thank You for my family. I love You so much. Help me to love You and trust You more. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

These are really scary chapters.

“There was silence in heaven for about half an hour….” Is this the time we are in now? Heavenly time is nothing like earthly time so half an hour in heaven could be millenia here. Is that why we do not hear from God, or at least, we don’t see His miracles on earth?

The horsemen of the previous chapters already seem to be here. There is rampant painful death, a lack of peace and much hunger over much of our planet. “The terrible day of anger is here, and who can stand against it?”

But God commands the four angels who are standing at the corners of the earth, ready to destroy it, that first the people of God must be sealed from harm.

Then the seventh seal is broken - and the terrors of before seem like a holiday in Eden.

A mountain of fire is thrown into the sea and a third of the creatures in it die. Fiery hail lands on the earth, burning a third of it. A third of the rivers and springs of the earth go bitter. It doesn’t sound that different to what is happening now really. A third of the light goes out of the world.

But then, a voice says “Horror - how awful for all those who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets of the other three angels.”

Okay, I’ve written enough now and I’m only up to chapter 8. I’ll do chapter nine tomorrow.

Dear Father God, Thank You for the strange book of the Revelation. Help us to understand it. Help us to keep looking to You and working for You with a thankful heart. Please be with my dad. Thank You that we know that the ending is good. Please forgive me my sins and please help me to know how to use my talents for You, my Father. In the name of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen

Reading the Revelation is just too much. There is so much over the top imagery that it is easy to just tune out. So sorry for being so slow on putting this up.

These chapters of the Revelation are filled with the verses which have been so contentious between the churches because they describe John’s vision of the future. We do not know which future. Is it ours, or was it the future for Roman times - one big allegory for the overthrow of Rome - as my vicar says.

I find that too reductionist though. This is a strange and hard-to-follow story of a major battle in heaven - and it seems to me that while we suffer hardships on earth, while evil still exists, that the battle is ongoing, on earth at least.

Anyway, the good news is that the Lion of Judah - Jesus - has won the battle in heaven with his death on the cross. In these chapters the Lamb/Lion is opening the seals which bring about the four riders of the Apocalypt. Maybe that is the part we are up to on earth! Certainly there is poverty and hunger and famine and a lack of peace.

So as you can see from my ramblings, I am still most confused about the Revelation. But I do know the ending - the building of the new Jerusalem - so we can only look forward to that day, whenever God has planned it to be.

“The Lamb went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. As he did so, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.”

So just think, our prayers are the incense of heaven!

Dear Father God,

Thank You that my prayers are in Your House. Please let them be worthy of You. Thank You for the mystery and hope You give us in the midst of the sometimes tawdry world… Thank You that we still have spring, and tadpoles, and baby foxes, and friends. Thank You for those beautiful things. Please help me love You most and teach Your ways to my children. Please forgive my sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Lord Christ,

You have no body on earth but ours,

No hands but ours,

No feet but ours.

Ours are the eyes

through which your compassion

must look out on the world.

Ours are the feet by which you may still

go about doing good.

Ours are the hands with which

you bless people now.

Bless our minds and bodies,

that we may be a blessing to others.

Amen

Prayer from St Teresa of Avila

I got asked why I haven’t been continuing my revelation comments, and I apologised and said I am still working my way through the book which talks about it. It is a very wordy book which requires lots of concentration. So in the meantime I will put up prayers and other bits and pieces.

Hope that’s okay, and may God bless each reader and move in their hearts,

Serena

Dear Father God,

You know my heart and You know that despite the beautiful spring weather, I feel defeated. You know why.

Father God, please be with me in this problem. Part of the problem is I can’t feel You now.

I love You, my Lord, please help me love You more.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

I noticed this morning it is not called Revelations, it is called The Revelation - in my book anyway.

Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to get a word from Jesus like the seven churches did in the first three chapters of Revelation. How much easier would it be if I knew everything He thought about me.

But then… that’s also a terrifying thought. To most of the seven churches He gives praise as well as criticism - even in that context the criticism would be hard to bear. But one of the churches is told it is so lukewarm it makes Jesus sick and He will spit them out of His mouth.

That has never left me from the first moment I read it. I remember also getting quite nauseous with shock reading the description of my beloved Jesus, who had always seemed so cuddly to me: “His hair was white as snow, and his eyes blazed like fire; his feet shone like brass and his voice sounded like a roaring waterfall. When I saw him I fell down at his feet like a dead man.”

I want so much to be found pleasing to God and Jesus on the day when I am judged, but I fear that I will not.

My Jesus, My Saviour, please show me how I can follow You better. I want to love You more and follow You. Please show me how. My Father God, please help me be more obedient to You by being more loving to Your people. Amen

Easter in Jerusalem.

What a revelation. To worship in a church just metres from where Christ died and was resurrected, on the morning of His resurrection. To walk the streets He walked (although those streets are about five metres below the current streets of Jerusalem) To go to the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended into heaven, then walk back down it to the Garden of Gethsemane.

These things were in the top ten experiences in my life (including marriage and babies being born)

After the deep sense of listlessness and the fear for my faith, I was worried my time in Jerusalem could not possibly live up to what I needed. After all, my faith teaches me that Jesus lives where his worshippers get together, not in a particular place.

But God has said He loves Jerusalem especially. Much of Revelation, the last book of our bible, is about the New Jerusalem, which God is preparing as we speak. And the power of all that, along with studying Revelation itself, has been good for me.

Starting tomorrow I will have more direct comment on Revelations (child-rearing allowing) But today I wanted to say Thank You God for touching me on our travels. Thank You for touching me during my reading of this difficult and beautiful complicated final book of the bible.

Thank You that my dad seems to be feeling better, although he is still gravely unwell. Thank You for my children and my husband, please help me care for them and teach them Your ways.

Please continue to show me what You want from me, my Father God, and thank You for sending Your son, my Saviour, Jesus Christ, to die as the eternal sacrifice for our sins, so that “whoever believes and is baptised may have eternal life with You.” In His name I pray, Amen

When I reread yesterday’s entry I felt like going back and changing it on the sly. I sound so petulant: “I’ve given up so much Lord,” - whining….

Well after an afternoon of whining from my children, and also reading the (relatively) cheery Malachi, I feel regretful of my sulkiness.

Emotionally, I am still in the dark Lenten days, but I feel God much more closely. I loved reading the prophecies about Jesus in Zechariah and Malachi. Tomorrow I will start the daunting task of writing up my reading of Revelation, which has also been a tricky read: about waiting, patience, endurance - all the Lenten themes which are on my shoulders and in my heart.

Dear Father God, Please forgive my pique of yesterday. Thank You for never giving up on me. I love You and I need You and without You I am miserable. Please, Father God, let Your Kingdom come. Thank You that my dad is sounding a lot better, and FJ seems to be heading in the right direction. Please bless my children, help me continue to teach them Your ways. Please bless my husband, and help me help my parents. In the name of Your Son, my Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen

As we proceed through the final, angry books of the Old Testament, and the final days of Lent, Psalm 143 sums it up for me today:

“Lord, hear my prayer, in Your righteousness listen to my plea;

answer me in Your faithfulness!

Don’t put me, Your servant, on trial; no one is innocent in Your sight…

My enemy has hunted me down and completely defeated me.

He has put me in prison

I remember the days gone by, I think about all You have done.

I lift up my hands to you in prayer; like dry ground my soul is thirsty for You

Answer me now Lord. I have lost all hope.”

I know I am not the best servant, but I do feel I have given up parts of the world - the glamorous bits of my life - in order to follow Christ. Okay, I am not out there on street corners every day, but I do feel some degree of exclusion for my faith.

Not persecution, like the Christians I am reading about in revelation, but just not being in with the cool girls because I don’t spend heaps on clothes, or my writing is mainly about God.

Anyway, in these final days of Lent I feel on trial. I wake up and I realise that I am not going to get old in some powerful position, having the comfort of a bureaucracy around me, as I could have. I am not going to be a powerful journalist or even a published writer, at this rate.

I feel searingly, piercingly on trial. So pathetic when I think of the trials of Jesus, walking the streets of Jerusalem being mocked and falling under the weight of His own cross.

Still, when God is quiet, when He withdraws His miraculous presence from the world, as He has done for so long, it can be disheartening to listen to the world calling you a fool for giving up your place.

I hated that place of power when I was in it, I cried most days, but at least I wasn’t lonely. People didn’t tell me when I was wrong. Everyone’s all too willing to tell me when I am wrong now.

So, my Heavenly Father, as the psalmist says, please hear my prayer. In YOUR righteousness listen to my plea, which is a pitiful, selfish, pathetic one. Please love me and nurture me. When You look at me, please do so through the sacrifice of my Lord, Your Son Jesus Christ and forgive me for all my human weakness. Please strengthen me to pass on Your love to others. Please renew my strength and hope. In Jesus name, Amen

These three books are concerned with, respectively, the fall of Nineveh, Judah and Jerusalem.

Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrians, who have been cruel captors to the Israelites. God says He used the Assyrians to punish disobedient Israel, but that they took their role too far in cruelty.

So they will disappear.

Habbakuk and Zephaniah are more familiar - they are about how Jerusalem is or will be punished for its sins.

It is hard reading. God is so angry and upset with the Israelites. But Zephaniah ends on a beautiful promise - God will be reconciled with Jerusalem:
“SIng and shout for joy, people of Israel! The Lord has ended your punishment, He has removed all your enemies. The Lord is with you, there is no reason to be afraid.

“The Lord will take delight in you, and in His love He will give you new life. He will sing and be joyful over you.”

Dear Father God, Thank You for being beside me in every moment of my day, even my doubtful ones. Thank You for the lovely flowers I got today, they felt like a real boost from You just when I needed it. Thank You for my toddlers’ group on Monday mornings. It has been such an enriching experience. Please bless all the mothers, grandmas and carers over Easter. Thank You for A, M and C. Please continue to be with my father and help him heal in body and spirit. Please come Lord Jesus, and heal Your world. Please help me do the work You have given me with a willing heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen

“What shall I bring to the Lord, the God of heaven, when I come to worship Him? Shall I bring the best calves?

“Will the Lord be pleased if I bring him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive-oil? Shall I offer him my first born son to pay for my sins?

“No, the Lord has told us what is good. What He requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.” Micah 6 1-8

John’s second and third letter are also concerned with God’s requirement that we always look to Him. and treat each other with love:

“Let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing to you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning. This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God’s commands. The command, as you have heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.”

Dear Father God, Please teach me to love better. Please teach me the patience of love, its kindness and its humility. Help me to love not just the husband and children You have given me, but also those in the wider world. Please forgive me my sins, and help me do the work You give me willingly. Please continue to heal my dad and watch over my sister. In Jesus’ name, Amen

We write to you about the Word of life, which has existed from the very beginning.

We have heard it, and we have seen it with our own eyes (writes John)

Yes, we have seen it, and our hands have touched it.

John’s writing is always such an inspiration.

That is why I am saving his gospel until last in this journey, as a way of pulling together everything into one good perspective.

Anyway, I will continue with a few more lines from this lovely letter he wrote:

“Now the message that we have heard from God’s Son, Jesus Christ and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him. If then, we say that we have fellowship with Him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions.

“But if we live in the light - just as He is in the light - then we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins to God He will keep His promise and do what is right: He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.”

Dear Father God, thank You for the beautiful writer John and his gospel. Thank You for the way He talks about You so that we can feel we too have seen Your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank You for my family, the food and shelter You give us and also for all the love I have in my life. I confess that I have sinned, and I humbly ask that You forgive those sins and help me to walk in Your light,  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen

The story of the disobedient prophet Jonah and his trip to the bottom of the ocean and back is one of the bible classics, so I won’t talk about it too much here, except to say it was only Jonah’s obedience which saved him, and that God rescued him in a way that would never be expected and would normally be seen as certain death.

So sometimes when we are feeling like things are at their end, there’s no hope, then hope we still should.

That much to me is obvious.

But Jonah’s tale has a curious end. After he warns Ninevah (the capital of the Jewish rivals and indeed oppressors, the Assyrians) to change their ways, and they do so, Jonah heads off into the desert in a massive sulk.

“I told you this would happen God,” he says, “Now I might as well be dead.”

A curious response, and one I have found so confusing. So God grows a little plant over his head as shade in the desert. Jonah was pleased with the plant - but then God kills it the next day.

Again Jonah scolds: “I am better off dead,” he repeats.

But God is angry: “What right have you to be angry about the plant. This plant grew up in one night and disappeared. You didn’t make it grow, and yet you feel sorry for it.

“How much more then, should I have pity on Nineveh, that great city. After all, it has more than 120,000 innocent children in it, as well as many animals.”

I love the way God includes animals in His calculations on why Nineveh is worth saving.

Dear Father God, I have had another challenge to my faith since my great revelation yesterday. How typical. The spiritual battle for my soul continues. I guess I should find it comforting that it is so regular. Father thank You for the promise You have made that nothing can separate me from Your precious love. Please show me how to fight off this attack. Please love me, grow my faith, and create in me a clean heart. Please also be with my father, who is still suffering. Thank You that his latest operation seems to have cleared the problem. In Jesus’ name, Amen

… to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness, In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world and may come to share the divine nature.

“For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; to your godliness add brotherly affection; and to your brotherly affection add love. These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will may you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peter explains well the difference between salvation, grace and faith - gifts from God for which we did nothing to receive - and the works we must then do to add to our faith so that we may grow in effectiveness.

It is nice to have it stepped out like that - although I think I still have to work on my goodness. As to godliness, I actually have no idea how one acquires that quality. But this is a good verse to study and think about.

Peter also addresses people who come and mock: “He promised to come, didn’t He? Where is He?” Which is a big difficulty for me. Who doesn’t find it hard to be mocked?

“Do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord’s sight between one day and a thousand years; to Him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.”

Dear Father God, Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your magnificence. Thank You for these words from Peter, who saw our Saviour Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection with his own eyes. Thank You for the beautiful day You have given me, and the epiphany which has rescued me from a torpor which was beginning to eat at my faith. Please watch over my dad, help him beat this infection. Please also be with Maggie. In Jesus’ name, Amen

“Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people.”

Peter has always been my favorite apostle. His fallability, his passion, his fear, give me hope that I am not alone in finding the journey of faith a difficult one - even Peter who was with Jesus found it tough.

He gives some lovely solid instructions here, but also makes this intriguing comment:

“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life… it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw. He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake…

“And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you. But they will have to give an account of themselves to God. That is why the Good News was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged in their physical existence as everyone is judged: it was preached to them so that in their spiritual existence they may live as God lives.”

That last sentence is amazing. What does it mean?

Dear Father God, my earthly dad is struggling with a horrible infection. Please give him strength. Please be with M, so that she can deal with all the horrendous stress. Please be with J and L, they have an ordeal ahead of them this week. Please move Your Holy Spirit through our world Father God. Please help me to be loving and kind to all around me so I can be your light in this little corner of the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Reading the minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament is a bit like struggling through wet cement. The constant disobedience of God’s people and his anger at them becomes grinding.

“Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. Instead let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.”

Dear Father God, Please watch over my faith. You promise that those who trust in you will find their strength renewed. Please strengthen me, as I feel weak today. Weak from the lack of justice from L, from the expectations and pushing of others, and from an overwhelming list of things to do, and no clear feeling of priorities. I find it hard to know what You want me to do, and then I find it hard to wait for You as You instruct. Please give me Your peace. Dear Father please be with my dad, who is struggling to recover. In Jesus’ name, Amen

“See how patient a farmer is as he waits for his land to produce precious crops. He waits patiently for the autumn and spring rains. You must also be patient. Keep your hopes high, for the day of the Lord’s coming is near.”

It’s so hard to be patient. It’s so hard to wait and feel like you’re not achieving anything, either in worldly terms or for God either.

Dear God, give me patience. Help me look for the things I cannot see, and to keep looking and waiting patiently. Please stay with me. Sometimes it is hard waiting. Please grow my faith and forgive my sins. Thank You for the moments when I feel You next to me. Please make me more like my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In His name I pray, Amen

The story of Hosea and his prostitute wife Gomer is quite confronting, containing much begging from Homer for his errant wife to come home.

God likens this to his relationship with Israel, His people who love following idols more than their creator and defender.

God explains that, just like Hosea had to threaten to cut off his wife to stop her running off with others, God has had to let Israel suffer and work hard.

Dear Father God, Thank You for the gifts You shower on me. Please let me be your obedient child. Help me do Your work. Give me a spirit of obedience to You. Give me patience to wait on You. Forgive me my sins as You have promised You will, thanks to the sacrifice of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Please be with my Father and give him strength. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Daniel in the lions’ den is one of the most famous of the Old Testament. It is lovely and faith affirming - God saves his loyal servant.

The story overshadows the final chapters of Daniel, where he sees his visions of the future. So many people have tried to interpret these visions, but the angel Gabriel himself tells Daniel that “many people will waste their time” trying to understand the visions until the right time.

I can understand why people try though - Daniel has so much faith God responds to his prayers by saving him from the threat of lions. Earlier in his book he tells about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who are saved by God from the flames. They have such surety in their faith, unlike our own times when it feels so often like God has gone quiet.

SO the visions seem like a promise from one of huge faith, if only we could understand it.

Dear Father God, Thank You for our beautiful prayer group on Saturday. Thank You for the beautiful celebrations our family had for mothers’ day. Dear Father, Please forgive me my sins, and help me have more faith and trust. Thank You for loving me Father. Please help grow my marriage, and please help us bring our children up in Your ways. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Hebrews contains a lot of the Old Testament prophecies about the new covenant that is to come, so it is nice to read in times when faith is flagging.

Paul is reminding the Hebrews of how the new covenant has its roots in their fathers’ faith: “It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval.”

“Do not lose your courage then, because it brings with it a great reward. You need to be patient, in order to do the will of God and receive what He promises.”

So, “let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give us because of the cross! Indeed because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right-hand of God’s throne.”

Dear Father God, thank You for our lovely Mother’s Day assembly this morning, and that A read his poem so well. Thank You that dad had regained conciousness, even though he is still feeling terribly groggy. Please bless his recovery. Thank You for the brilliant medical team treating him. Please continue to grow my faith, and guard it. Thank You for loving me, my heavenly Father. Please help me to use the strength Your love gives me to do Your work. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The mighty king Nebuchadnezzar has another dream:

A beautiful tree, so tall that ir reached the sky, had so much fruit it could have fed the world. Yet an angel came down and declared in a loud voice that it must be cut down.

Daniel is put in the awkward position of having to interpret the dream. He tells Nebuchadnezzar that he, the king, is the tree.

“This is what the Supreme God has declared will happen to you. You will be driven away from human society and will live with wild animals. For seven years you will eat grass like and ox. Then you will admit that the Supreme God controls all human kingdoms.

“The angel ordered hte sump to be left in the ground. This means that you will become king again when you acknowledge that God rules all the world.”

Indeed King Nebuchadnezzar one day was looking out on Babylon from his roof, and said: “Look how great Babylon is! I built it as my capital city to display my power and might.”

At that moment Nebuchadnezzar was driven out of human society and became like an animal.

After seven years he finally admits God is the supreme God, and praised him.

As soon as he did that, his kingdom is returned to him.

Dear Father God, Please help me in all things be humble, and always give the glory to You. Please take my pride and replace it with faith in You. Thank You that Dad’s operation went well. Thank You that F’s spirits seem high despite her recent problems. Please help me teach my children. Thank You for my lovely husband. Please continue to grow our marriage and family. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The above verse is of course about Jesus, and Hebrews has some lovely summaries of faith…:

“Jesus purifies people from their sins, and both he and those who are made pure all have the same Father. Jesus became flesh and blood like us and shared our human nature. He did this so that through his death (and resurrection)  he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death and in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death.”

Dear Father God, I ask You for the patience to wait for You. It is so tempting to run around trying to be a hero in the eyes of the world.  Please give me the patience to wait for You, to sit still and know You are God, and to know that You have victory over all this death and sickness. Please look after my dad. Please help me be a good mother and to raise my children to know You. Forgive me all my sins, particularly forgive me when I fail the jobs You give me. Please increase my faith, In Jesus’ name, Amen

2 Thessalonians, 2 v 3 - 10 is a challenging prophetic chapter which I have tried three times to write about here but each time I find myself unable to write about it.

So I will just translate the verses here.

“Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day (of Christ’s return) will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined for hell.

“He will pose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God’s temple and claim to be God.

“Don’t you remember? I told you all this while I was with you. Yet there is something that keeps this from happening now, and you know what it is. At the proper time, then, the Wicked One will appear.

“The Mysterious Wickedness is already at work, but what is going to happen will not happen until the one who holds it back is taken out of the way..

“Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence.

“The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders, and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who wil perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved. And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.”

Dear God, Is it right for me to understand these verses? If so, please help me understand them. Father my plea today is that You be with everyone who will be operating on my dad tomorrow. Please give them steady hands and eyes. Help them communicate well, and help them do their job right. Please heal my dad and look after him. I love You my Father in heaven. Help me love You more. Please forgive me my sins and show me the work You have for me. Help me teach my children well about You. In Jesus’ name, Amen

This has actually been one of my favorite old testament books. It has lots of good stories of faith and God actively responding to it. And it has loads of mystery and a fascinating character in King Nebuchadnezzar.

The book starts off with King Nebuchadnezzar taking all the best and brightest young men from Israel and training them to be his advisers. Daniel is one of them.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar has a frightening dream and he demands that someone not just tell him what it means - but also, what it was.

When no-one can do that, King Nebuchadnezzar threatens to kill all his advisers, at which point Daniel rouses himself and with a faith that is so strong it is almost casual he tells Nebuchadnezzar he will interpret the dream before asking God!

Anyway God reveals to Daniel what the dream was and also what it means, and that dream has been the subject of much interpretation ever since.

Nebuchadnezzar declares that Daniel’s God is the one true God, but has a short memory because in the next breath he is making an idol and ordering all of his subjects to worship it.

Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to worship the idol.

“At that the king flew into a rage and had the three men brought before him. ‘Is it true that you refuse to worship by god and to bow down to the gold statue I have set up?’Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered ‘Your majesty, we will not try to defend ourselves. If the God whom we serve is able to save us from the blazing furnace and from your power then he will.”

God does save them from the furnace, even though it is so hot that the guards near it faint and die.

Nebuchadnezzar declares God the true God again: “And now I command that if anyone of any nation, race or language speaks disrespectfully of the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, he is to be torn from limb to limb.”

Dear God, Thank You for the book of Daniel. It is a beautiful, mysterious book. Thank You for the stories of reconnection with Your people. Thank You for the lovely day we have today. Please let our women’s day of prayer be successful, so that You hear our prayers as incense floating up from earth. Thank You for the safe arrival of baby T. Please be with his mother and father and also my father. Please be with F who is suffering in a bad relationship. I love You my Father, please help me love and worship You more. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Paul is talking about Timothy’s faith in the quote above… he finishes the instructiong by saying “Avoid the profane talk and foolish arguments of what some people wrongly call ‘knowledge’. For some have claimed to possess it and as a result they have lost the way of faith.”

Paul talks about people who think religion is a way of becoming rich:

“Well religion does make a person very rich, if he is satisfied with what he has. What did we bring into this world? Nothing. What shall we take out of it? Nothing. So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harful desires which pull them down to ruin and destruction.

“For the love of money is the source of all kinds of evil.

“But you, man of God, avoid all these things. Strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

“Run your best in the race of faith, and win eternal life.”

Dear Father God, Thank You that Jesus has died so that that I am made right with You through faith. Please help grow my faith, help me nurture it and help it bear fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and moderation. Please give me patience to teach my children Your word. Help me do the work You set out for me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen

“So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

“Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.

“And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity. The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decision s you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful. Christ’s message in all its richness must live in your hearts.

Everything you do or say should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father.”

Colossians 3, 12-15, 17

Dear Father God, Please bless all the people in my family with birthdays today. Please move in their lives and show them your love, particularly my dear F. Please bless our healing ministry which is meeting today. Help me do the bit of work You have allocated me today faithfully and with love. Thank You for my beautiful children. Please give me the patience to teach them about You. Thank You for my husband, and please continue to give him strength.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

“May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice!

“Show a gentle attitude towards everyone. The Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart.

“I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learnt this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little.

“I have the strength to face all things by the power that Christ gives me.

Dear Father God, Today it is hard to fill my heart with all good things. A is having a hard time at school and my dad is facing surgery for brain tumor. F is suffering in her relationship. Please be with all those three, and give them your power to have the strength to face these things. Please give me the strength to give them the love they need. Please forgive me my sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Wherever it flows, it will bring life….

This is the stream flowing from the temple, the great building that is Ezekiel’s final vision. The stream is the beautiful bit, I think it refers to our Lord Jesus.

“Wherever the stream flows there will be all kinds of animals and fish. On each bank all kinds of trees will grow to provide food. Their leaves will never wither and they will never stop bearing fruit. The trees will provide food and their leaves will be used for healing people.”

Speaking of trees, this is from Ezekiel 17: “I will take the top of a tall cedar and break of a tender sprout. I will plant it ino a high mountain, on Israel’s highest mountain. It will grow branches and bear seed and become a magnificent cedar. Birds of every kind will live there and find shelter in its shade.”

These beautiful visions follow, and in the case of chapter 17 are intermingled with, terrible visions of destruction.

Dear God, Thank You for planting our family near Your river. Please help us stay as close to You as a tree to its river. You are our eternal stream and You provide everything for us. Help us to trust You, depend on You, love You and love each other. Please continue to grow our faith in You. Please help us teach our children well, and help us be kind to the elderly. In the name of our High Priest, Your Son and our Lord Jesus, Amen.