“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed” certainly isn’t a term that most persons associate with being broken, hurt, tried or down.

But is it possible that as a result, we may miss the blessing in our pain?

Is it possible that, maybe God is doing us a favour when we hurt…? That His intentions are indeed good when our situation seems bad?

God’s a jealous God & He wants what belongs to Him.

We often times get distracted by this life, but He…

He still remembers what he created us for. He still remembers how we were supposed to dwell in perfect unity, perfect peace, perfect love with Him. He still remembers how He made our hearts to long for Him…ALONE.

He still remembers when that first thought of evil was conceived in man’s mind. He remembers the second Eve’s lips touched that fruit. HE remembers that very instant when His beloved lost their trust in Him and disobeyed. Yes, He remembers that day clearly… He remembers still, how much the fall of man hurt Him.

He remembers… and that’s why He sometimes tugs at our hearts through disappointment, heartbreak, sickness, pain, loss, death…

Because He remembers, He does what He must in order to regain our attention, our affection & our hope.

God doesn’t worry when we’re broken because He knows that unlike the things that we lose or the things that disappoint us, HE CAN’T FAIL!

He doesn’t worry when we’re on our knees because He knows we can find Him there.

He still remembers how He intended things to be…

But do we?

When things go well, do we remember that this isn’t home?

When life is “perfect”, do we long to see His face?

When we don’t experience loss, do we find all our comfort in God? Or do we find it in friends and family?

Do we still find our security in God, or does our security now come from a … pay cheque or… good health?

What if God’s just trying to protect us?

What if He’s simply trying to prevent us from becoming too comfortable… too attached?

You see friends,

God loves us enough to separate us from this world.

Like an adhesive, he gently pulls us away from the things we cling to.

And like a babe, we cry

Wondering why He’d choose to hurt us.

But Oh, how He loves us!

Yes, He loves us enough to allow pain sometimes.

What unique love!

He loves us enough to want us only for Himself.

He loves us enough that He takes us from “seemingly good” and leads us to His best.

He loves us enough that He subjected His only Son to the Cross          (for our sake)

More than 2000 years later, and He’s never left us

He has never given up on us.

He longs for us

Waits for us

I can imagine how excited He is to be with us eternally

To be reunited with His uniquely designed, one of a kind, won’t ever find another model like- creation.

I can imagine how He longs for the day when things will be how they were meant to be… J

And so, He wants us to remember that the pain & the disappointment won’t linger forever.

He wants us to remember that the suffering only lasts for a night.

He wants us to remember that He’s near

He wants our hearts to turn to Him

To long for Him

To wait for Him

To hope in Him.

For it is true that pain allows our hearts to hope for something better…

And He knows…

Ohh, He knows …

That we will never find better satisfaction than our souls find in Him.

In the beginning there was God – Perfection.

In the beginning was God & God spoke and it was so.

There were heavens, Earth, light, day, night, sky, stars, moon; trees with fruit, creatures of the

Land, sky & sea… God saw that it was good. – Perfection

In the beginning was God & God said “Let us make man in an image like Ours” and it was…

Not just so

Cause this time, He opted not to just simply speak us into being but He stopped what He was doing (cause we’re worth more than multitasking) & with careful consideration,

He reached down in into DUST…

(He must’ve gotten His hands dirty but I bet it didn’t matter cause He was SO caught up in this masterpiece He was about to make)

& He reached down into DUST…

(somewhat symbolic of what we are before His touch)

He reached down into DUST and gave that dust form & with His touch, He gave that dust identity & with His breath, He gave that dust Life.

He breathed His breath into the nostrils of that well-sculpted dust & instantly dust became a MASTERPIECE.

I imagine the angels lifted their heads & turned in awe as they tried to sneak a peak of the Creator’s most precious creation. (The creation story alone ought to tell us our worth!)

Perfection.

In the beginning there was -  Perfection.

And then came Deception

Slithering into the garden’s perfect equation, a fraction of truth with a whole lot of lies

Hoping we’d not recognize his disguise…

And I guess we didn’t…

Cause we bought into the lie and bit into the fruit believing that God had withheld good from us.

See, that’s where the story goes downhill. We believe that God withholds good from us…

Not realizing that by believing his lies, we’ve shut out True Light.

Deception

See, that’s all the devil needs…

To make us think that the God who created us knows not how to take care of us.

To make us think that the God who says He loves us withholds good from us.

To make us think that thinking twice or thrice about obeying God’s law is right

And so he plants seeds of “baby lies” into our hands and

Enticing us, we take it to our mouths and

Swallowing, we pass it to our blood

Not knowing that it’d eventually reach our hearts.

But our hearts have within it the dirt that these seeds need to grow and so they grow until they’ve become great lies that now feel like they’re a part of us.

Our stomach gets upset

As we try to expel them from our system… thus starting the War.

DECEPTION

His thoughts vs. God’s truth

God’s truth vs. his lies

He throws his punches one after the other.

Telling us:

“God doesn’t have your best interest at heart.”

“He’s slow to protect”

“Slow to provide”

“Why should you be the one to go through this trial?”

DECEPTION

Since the inception of time

The prince of this world has specialized in denying us truth.

A master of his craft, he skillfully makes good seems bad and bad seems good. He bends and twists his lies until they’ve taken the form of truth.

Walk & talk like truth.

Sound and even feel like truth...

But not until examined closely under the Light will see through Lucifer’s lies.

Haven’t you realized…

that he specializes ONLY in counterfeit?

Truth – counterfeit

Joy – counterfeit

Counterfeit life which only leads to eternal death.

But in the beginning was the Word & the Word was with God and the Word was God.

In the beginning was the Word & had that Word not come to life to give light to those lies, we’d still be deceived.

REDEMPTION!

Oh redemption that we cannot repay.

Sweet redemption that continues to save.

Redemption… to break us from the web and chains of deception.

Redemption to set us free from the bondage that kept us hostage to sin

REJOICE for redemption has come!

Praise God for redemption has come!

(but just a sec’) Redemption came at a cost my friends…

Someone’s blood now covers that price tag

Reminding us of our promise

To give our lives

To give our hearts

To give our time

To spend ourselves in devotion to the ministry of the Redeemer…

Remember that promise?

When did submerging ourselves in the ministry of Christ get out of style anyway?

When did we become entitled to use “our” time and resources the way we see fit?

Remember your promise?

Remember when we believed He was worth it?

Out of love Jesus paid it all.

Out of love, should we not give Him our all?

Reflection.

Ellice Prout

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The Christian has access to something every human craves - REST... Shalom/ Peace... 
That state where you let God be ENOUGH,
That state where you stop yearning & searching for what life has to offer because you realize that you have already gained THE MOST PRECIOUS THING. 

We can stop now. We can rest. The search is over.

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After listening to the song ‘It’s all about You’ repeatedly, I could acknowledge my most well learnt lesson in my walk with Christ – it’s not about me & it never was. When I gave my life to Christ, that should’ve meant giving Him my will, my desires, my hopes, my dreams, my talents & receiving His instead. I had difficulty doing that because I wanted to see my dreams become a reality; I wanted to help God plan; be His little assistant or something. I still had hopes of doing this n becoming that, getting this & experiencing that, simply because I saw it suitable and that’s normal right? Well…I’ve realized that doing that means that I’m still holding on to a part of my life instead of leaving it in the Potter’s hand. Thank God he’s released my grip from my own life & opened my eyes. Since then, everything started to make sense. I understood why things happened the way they did in my life and I began to understand what God’s ulterior motive is in the lives of all Christians. This song explains it well – “It’s all about You Jesus & all this is for You, for Your Glory & Your Fame.” 

Everything God does in our lives is for HIS glory. We can now see why God allows both good and bad to happen 2 us- so that he can be glorified. God doesn’t allow anything in life to happen unless it will bring Him glory. You see, we don’t live for ourselves; our lives no longer belong to us (or so it should be). Good things don’t necessarily happen to u because you’re good & bad things don’t necessarily happen to u because you’re bad. When something good happens in your life, it either results in you giving God glory or it touches someone else and then God is glorified in their eyes. When things don’t go our way at 1st and then God takes us through it, who gets glorified in the end? Yup, that would be God. 

I’ve completely given up my life. It didn’t happen in one day and it definitely was a humbling experience. I’ve gone from overwhelmingly questioning God, to complete surrender. I no longer ask “Why can’t I fully focus on the things I do best, if I’m good at them?”, “How can You take this dream from me when I’ve had it all my life?”, “Why would You ask for my best gift; what means most to me, if You blessed me with it?” God needs things to play out a particular way so that He can be honoured; so people can see His greatness. He needs us to see that His grace is sufficient. He needed me to see that He alone is enough. 

Our talents, our strengths, our weaknesses, our ambitions, our friends, our future and our circumstance are not by chance. All that we do and all that we go through affects someone, somewhere and it all brings glory to God. So…. 
I'll obey Him because I love Him 
I'll still have faith because I trust Him 
I'll offer my best sacrifice, because He's worth it. 
He alone is God & I'll surrender to His ways


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I would be selfish beyond recovery if I were to sit here in my little Christian corner & experience Christ by myself. 

I know what it feels like to want MORE... 
I know how it feels to realise that no friend, parent, loved one, gift or amount of money can satisfy the soul 100%. Even as a Christian I've had my days [correction: months] of feeling hopeless. I've questioned God...just like you might have. My friends could tell you that I've made enough mistakes to last... for a while & well, like yourself, I think I've had my fair share of pain. I've been on the road of confusion and loneliness many a times. But at the end of it all, (or maybe I should say "in the midst of it all") GOD IS STILL FAITHFUL. I just want to say that again... GOD IS STILL FAITHFUL no matter what your circumstnces look like or no matter what your emotions tell you. Friends, no one is more faithful than He is. Trust me, no one loves you like He does. All that you've ever wanted lies in His touch. His embrace can heal your heart. His voice can enlighten your darkness. His BLOOD can save you. =) 

I know you've heard this before but GOD IS PERFECT. He isn't like us. He doesn't know what it is to mess up & I can't help but find comfort in that. This life isn't perfect and so pain will be inevitable but what if you did not have to endure it on your own? Don't you want to understand the freedom there is when we cast our burdens on Him? If your burden is not light, give it to God. I really mean give Him EVERYTHING and He will give you comfort. 
Give God a chance. Please. He's given us many. Break down those walls of doubt, fear, pride and skepticism that prevent you from running to the One who loved you first. Give Him a chance to have your whole life this time. Don't ever think that things are too bad for God to handle. Just tell Him that you need Him and that you are His and have faith that He will take you on a new journey. 

If you've never given your life to Christ or if you've only given Him a part of your life, then join me in taking a stance. Choose to dedicate or re-dedicate your life to the only Saviour. If there's a part of you that is not completely fulfilled, if there's a part of you that still desires something more from life, then that means there's a part of you that knows you should draw closer to Christ. 

Salvation was not made available to us because Christ randomly felt like leaving His throne of Glory to experience the "thrill" of crucifixion on Earth. 
HE DID IT FOR YOU. 
He was not forced. He CHOSE to do it for YOU. 
God- the king of the world; the creator of Heaven- became flesh [FOR YOU] 
He subjected Himself to every kind of pain possible [FOR YOU] 
He allowed sinners to ridicule Him and de-crown Him [FOR YOU] 
He allowed men to spit on Him and abuse Him [FOR YOU] 
He allowed a crown of THORNS to be placed on His royal head and His sides to be pierced [YUP...that would be FOR YOU as well] 
He endured the pain and the humiliation [just because HE WANTS YOU] 
Yes, it's unbelievable but it's true! 
Don't believe me? 
I bet you've never wondered then why He did not call it off, why He did not cry "You've taken this too far. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!" ? 
You see, He knew all along that you'd be worth it. 
God became like an insect in His OWN company [for OUR SAKE]. 

He is waiting...God is waiting on you to come to Him, to receive His gift ( and if you've already received it, then to enjoy His gift). He's waiting on you to get closer to Him. 

I can picture Him glancing at those nail-pierced hands daily, with no regret in His heart and only love in His eyes, as He whispers to an angel "It was worth it. You see, I'm just waiting on this one to realise that I am MORE THAN ENOUGH."

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Open our eyes Lord that we may see how far we've drifted from Your will.

Father forgive us, for:

* we have questioned Your Word and Your will, and called it "intellect".

* we have aimlessly attended church, and called it "worship".

* we have kept silent when others boldly went against Your will, and called it "tolerance".

* we have polluted our lips with profanity, and called it "freedom of speech".

* we have exposed and wrongly embellished YOUR TEMPLE, and called it "fashion".

* we have accepted unholy or profane music and called it "diversity".

* we have tried to juggle being of this world and being spiritual Christians, and called it "versatility".

* we have blindly requested things from You, and called it "prayer".

* we have repeatedly praised ourselves instead of giving YOU the credit, and called it "self-esteem" or "confidence".

* we have been sexually immoral, and called it "human nature".

* we have ignored You, doubted You, cursed You, disobeyed You, and STILL we call it "Love".

Hear our cry oh Lord and forgive us, for we know what we have done.

Guide us as we return... to the BASICS OF LIFE.



by Ellice Prout on Monday, September 3, 2007 at 6:05pm

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[If I had only a few minutes to write You my own psalm of praise, it would sound something like this...]

You have blessed me SO tremendously and so to You, I give my everything.

You have loved me so completely and so to You, I give my heart.

Oh how great it is to have Someone to cast my burdens on.

Bless the LORD oh my soul, for He has been good!

He has been my Portion, my Provider, my Shelter, my ROCK, my source of Joy and of Strength.

He has guarded my soul from the path that leads to DEATH.

He has guided my steps and carefully watched each one so there was never a time when I stumbled and didn't have a Very Present Help in time of need.

He has been my "Always there on time" guy and my "Turn water into wine" guy.

My Rescuer as well as my Redeemer.

I smile at the future because

He IS my Guide...

my Light...

my Advocate...

my Hope...

In HIM will I trust & in Him I will REST

For He is more than enough and the only source of abundance.

The only source of abundant...

Joy,

Peace,

Hope,

Comfort,

Love...

LIFE.

It is because of Him I can say "MY CUP RUNNETH OVER!."     :)

Jesus... YOU are all I need.



by Ellice Prout on Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 11:57pm

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