Skip to main content

Go to War

 

The renovations are slowly coming to an end – very slowly! The installation of the new kitchen was supposed to happen two weeks ago and take two days. They started BUT it has taken two weeks so far and they are not quite done. They keep coming back to do small bits at a time. The sink leaked and it took two plumbers over four visits to find the problem. Glue was left on the benchtops when they were installed so they are coming back to try and get the bits of glue off. I’m reminded again of the importance of patience and thank God that he keeps challenging me to grow in this area.

The hardest part? I think the long time to get everything done, as it has sapped my strength continually. Once the bulk of the work was done and the carpet in—with a huge amount of dust as they lifted the old carpet—I arranged for a cleaner to come and do a really good spring clean of the whole area, so everything was dust-free for the hanging of the wallpaper. She was marvellous and did a really excellent job, taking just three hours. The following week, the wallpaper hanger came in and sealed the walls in preparation. As she left at the end of the day, she informed me that she and her colleague would be back to hang the wallpaper in the morning, after she had sanded the walls. I felt rather depressed at the thought of all that dust and having to subsequently clean it all myself afterwards. Fortunately, they had little vacuum cleaners on the end of the sanders so the dust was not too bad. However, I thoroughly cleaned the whole area again when they had finished the job. I guess we have to do that in our Christian journey. Keep examining our hearts and giving them a clean out by confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness. So, a few more days and the worst should be over just in time for our family of six to descend for the weekend. Phew!

My daughter in law has a wonderful Podcast and felt convicted to read the whole of the New Testament aloud on her Podcast last weekend. My daughter is her tech support and organised streaming over several social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others, as well as problem solving issues as they continued. They had organised previous guests on the Podcast and others to carry the reading over while they had six half-hour breaks. What an incredible undertaking and how marvellous to hear God’s Word spoken continuously over that time. They commenced at 6 am on Saturday morning and read the last words of Revelation at 3.30 am Sunday morning. God blessed them by sending them ‘encouragers’ throughout the time, including those who stayed through Saturday night to urge them on. Others watching the Podcast sent encouraging messages. What a triumph as God was glorified in this way.

It wasn’t without its difficulties. Both of them came down with heavy colds a couple of days before the weekend. Then some of the streaming during testing simply stopped and required some work to get it going again. I believe the adversary was intending to stop the event happening. However, many people (including myself) were battling in prayer for this to go ahead successfully and of course God prevailed.

How simple it is to give up sometimes when everything feels against us in our journey. We think maybe it wasn’t God’s will after all, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. But if you feel a conviction to take a certain action and it really feels like God has spoken, especially if it is surrounded by a complete sense of peace, then trust God and push through.

 Blessings.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to relax

  Another update on the ongoing saga of the renovations. The new kitchen has now been pushed out until September with no date given. The flooring has now been pushed out until the 19 September and wallpapering sometime after that. We have to wait for the wallpapering before we install the new heat pump and the range-hood. The new lounge suite will take three to four months to be ready in the colour we want. Family are coming for our 140 th church celebrations the second week in October. I’m praying that the heat pump is up! There will literally be no chairs for them to sit on. Hopefully the new kitchen will at least be installed so I can unpack all the boxes that are currently stored in the spare bedrooms otherwise I have no place for them to sleep. I am laughing at the thought of sleeping bags in the lounge around the piano which is currently right in the middle where we moved it to allow painters to get around it. But today, I had a lovely relaxing morning. My friend is stil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...
Post a Comment
Read more