She'll be coming round the mountain

Climb every mountain!

1st August eeek! where did July go???

Couple of thoughts I've had over the last day or so.

Yesterday I was having a chat with family and we laughed about our how we complicate our lives. There are times in our lives when we have a choice to learn from our mistakes and take that forward or be 'doomed' to go round that same mountain again and again until we tire ourselves out and hopefully learn the lesson. (See the way the children of Israel took 40 years to get to the promised land for a journey that should have taken 11 days). This is why we laughed at our stubbornness. But then, I thought about it later and felt an unease at thinking that it's funny; As a Christian, God clearly shows us in scripture how to live the life He created for us. When we commit our lives to Christ, we are not our own, the bible says we have been 'adopted' into the family of God (believers/the church). Also says we were made for 'good works' those are acts of kindness, love, mercy, grace, compassion which are all attributes of God; we see in the 4 Gospels how Jesus walked, talked and loved people (see my faith page for further thoughts). As a Christian over 40+ years I am finally realising in my earlier years of faith how I had it all wrong. Coming from a Catholic background I had a lot of fear of God, if I didn't go to church, serve, give, pray, read my bible He was going to be angry with me.....wrong. I was so immersed in church life and perceived 'do's and don'ts, that I must have been insufferable to those around me that loved me. I felt I didn't pray enough, read my bible enough, serve enough and when I got to breaking point was told by a minister "God doesn't like quitters" so I carried on and became ill. Was that God's design for me...NO and its not for you. God wants our love, our heart, a relationship with Him. God doesn't need anything from anyone, He does fine thank you very much. So that mountain I have walked around for over 40 years and taken me 'time out' from church life to see it, say sorry (repent) and turn around (which is what repent means). Now I know God loves me whatever, I don't have to 'do' anything for Him to love me any more or any less; it all comes down to my faith in His Son Jesus Christ, I am accepted, forgiven and loved. What freedom!! I am alive today to love and follow Him, listen and heed His teaching and let Him live His life through me by showing compassion, love, kindness, mercy, and grace; this is what pleases God.

One of the trips around the mountain for me was a problem with forgiveness. If for any reason I or you are holding onto forgiveness that is the first step in recognising it, seeing that we have been forgiven even though we don't deserve it, shows us that we need/must forgive, if we can't, we just need to be honest with God who will help us in our need. Then our trip around that mountain will not need to be repeated....thank goodness!