Rescue remedy

Over the past couple of weeks several things have happened in my life that have brought my attention to the word 'rescue', and that have caused me to believe that God is speaking to me of the importance, not only  of my small part in His great plan to rescue  mankind through the spreading of the gospel of salvation through His Son Jesus, but also of  the importance of building only according to His plan.  I felt to share these experiences on my blog and if it is of any encouragement to anyone who reads it then so be it.

 

A week ago last Thursday I was driving home after shopping in a near by town. As I approached the turn off into our road  I noticed a hedgehog lying upside down on the pavement outside a house.  I wondered if it was still alive as it didn't appear to have been physically injured in any way, but remembered that I had frozen food in my shopping bags so could not stop to see to it right away.  I drove up to my house which was not far away, put the frozen food in the freezer and, after explaining to my husband about the hedgehog, came back down to where I had seen it.  My plan was to put it in a bag, bring it home and maybe put it comfortable in the shed and try to nurse it back to health if  possible, before releasing it back into the countryside.

When I returned opposite to the place where I'd seen the hedgehog, there was a man gently picking it up and placing it in the back of a red van.  I pulled the car into the curb and got out to call to the man, asking him if the hedgehog was still alive.  He came across the road and said that the hedgehog was still warm and that he was hopeful that it would survive.  We had a wonderful conversation, the man telling me that he rescued many animals and had recently taken home a squirrel that he had found lying on the side of the road.  He told me he used a product called 'rescue remedy', a herbal remedy used for calming after stress.  He went on to say that the squirrel had come around within minutes of being given this remedy and was able to be released.  I told him he had made my day, we said our goodbyes and off I went to my home, believing that the hedgehog would soon be returning to his.

The following day my friend and I met up in the coastal town where we come together to do evangelising with leaflets that we have felt to put together with poetry and scripture, (the content of my own leaflets  I have put on my other blog (  www.fatherithankyouforjesus.blogspot.co.uk ).

After a lovely afternoon, meeting some very nice people, we went into the market to have a look around the stalls.  As we passed a fish stall I noticed a lobster there with its claws taped up.  Suddenly its antennae moved.  I walked a couple of steps away from the stall and started to get very upset, as I remembered hearing that lobsters are alive when cooked.  I said to my friend 'I can't leave it there'.  We decided we would split the cost and buy it, which we did.  We walked down to the beach, untied the lobster's claws and set it free, praising the Lord as we watched it regain strength and go off into the sea.


I started to think that there was something that was being brought to my attention regarding 'rescue', as two separate incidents had occurred involving rescue in just two days.  That Sunday I went to church and the pastor there said he'd had a dream which he would share with us later, and then we shared one with another anything which we felt to share, either from scripture or testimony.  I related what had happened on the Thursday and the Friday.  The pastor later shared his dream which was about him standing in a  place and walking to a very high drop where someone was about to jump over the edge.  He said he pulled him back, and felt that the dream spoke of rescue.  I was even more sure that I was hearing a message from the Lord.

Then, one day last week I was looking on a blog in which the writer spoke of two dreams he'd  had, both spoke to me of rescue, the first one of his own rescue by calling on God in the name of Jesus, and the second one of the need for rescue of others.  The post is called  'Jephyr's Dream: On A Lake In A Storm, Alone And Blind,' and was posted on Seprember 13th 2012, and the blog is www.artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.co.uk

Then on Saturday I was painting a garden arch with a green, water based paint and a spider suddenly dropped down onto the soil covered in the paint.  I have a bit of a phobia about spiders, but it distressed me so much to see the little creature in such a state that I ended up picking it up and, as both of the garden bird baths were empty, rushing into the kitchen and washing it gently in cold water in my hand.  Thankfully all the paint came off it and it was able to be put onto a bush in the garden.

Now many people might think that I am over the top concerning little creatures but I have always been like it.  I cannot use slug pellets or kill insects wilfully.  That is why I believe God chose to speak to me in this way, because He  knows that by doing so His message would make an impact.  He allowed me to be in a position where a deep concern for something in a dangerous position would drive me to want to rescue.

In the same way that I desperately wanted to rescue the suffering, dying creatures  and return them  to their true home, so too God wants to rescue mankind from their suffering and spiritual death and return them to their true home.  He loves us with a greater love than we could ever have, a love that brought about an unimaginable sacrifice.


I believe the experiences with the hedgehog and the lobster, and the dreams showed me my personal responsibility as far as evangelism is concerned.  However I believe the experience with the spider showed me something else as well.


Washing the spider with water reminded me of Ephesians ch.5 v.26 which speaks about the church,  'That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word...'   There is a set plan for the church to grow and it is clearly written in the scriptures. One plants, one waters but God adds the increase, and the Lord has assigned to each his task.  1 Corinthians ch. 3 v.10, 11 says ' But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ'. 

Also Ephesians ch. 4 v.11 says 'And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up'.    1 Corinthians ch. 14 vs 26 - 31    gives clear instruction of how things must be when God's people gather together  'What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.  If anyone speaks in a tongue, two--or at the most three--should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.  If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.  Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.  And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.  For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.'    Sometimes we might try to 'build God's house' by all sorts of ways, even trying to add to the numbers by trying to attract people in with worldly things.   A spider builds his own house, the web. Job ch.8 vs.13 - 15 reads 'such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless man shall perish. His confidence breaks in sunder, and his trust is a spide's web ( this word is translated 'house' in the hebrew)

I believe the Lord used the spider to show me that if we forget God, and His instruction in the 'building,' then we will have a very fragile ' house'.  Just as the spider builds his own home we, God's children can be building our own spiritual house if we try to build any way other than how the Lord is instructing us.  Psalm 127 v.1 says ' Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:'

A few days ago,  I had a very vivid dream just before I awoke.  The phone was ringing in my house and I went to answer it, but there were all sorts of things in my way, stopping me from getting to the phone.  By the time I reached it and picked it up the phone had been layed down the other end but I could still hear what was going on.  It was our son who had phoned and I could hear everything that was going on in his house, but it was as if he had given up waiting for me to answer his call.

I have to ask myself.  Is the Lord pointing out to me that the clutter of 'man's attempts to build' in God's house is sometimes causing  His children who are trying to connect with Him to 'put the phone down' and stop trying?


Strange...... Two days after I put this post on I have to add something.  I have just come home after being out for most of the day to find two emails from our son.  He is asking me if I want one of his spare mobile phones.  He says I can choose which one I want.   One is in it's original packaging and has a manual with it.  My son knows nothing about my post on my blog.  I believe absolutely that God is echoing the emphasis on communication His way, as it has been for two thousand years, with His manual.
 

How to be righteous and please God

In Matthew ch.5 Jesus tells His disciples that blessing will come from suffering, self denial, a desire for righteousness, mercy and peace, and tells them to rejoice when persecuted on account of Him.  As a believer I am told to salt the earth and give light to the world so that men might give glory to God for my good works.  Jesus goes on to say that unless my righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees I will never enter the kingdom of God.  From verse 21 to the end of the chapter I am told that Jesus requires that I not only stop sinning in the flesh but the intent of my mind and my heart must be pure, and that I must do good to those who are doing evil to me.  Finally, in the last verse of this chapter, I am told that I must be as perfect as God Himself ...... ...

 

 

This is where I give up all hope of trying to get into the kingdom of God by any other means except through grace, and realise that it is futile to think that I can please Him with any righteousness other than  the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ,  a righteousness attained by the Holy Spirit through the gift of faith.

 

 

Wisdom's key

I have a desktop publishing package on my computer that I have been using for some time now, but I have not been using it to its full potential.  There are many facilities that I need on this package for the work that I do, and I have not been using them because I did not know they were there.

How did I find out that they were there?  I decided to use the tutorials that came with the package.  Now I am finding wonderful tools to help me with, and enhance, the products that I enjoy creating and the things that I enjoy writing about both in card and booklet form, and on blogs.

The same principal applies to my spiritual life.  Without a teacher I will remain carnal, and without a tutorial I cannot gain the knowledge and wisdom needed to transform me into what the Lord intends me to be.  In the book of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11, God was telling the people through Jeremiah that His plans for them were 'for welfare, and not for evil, to give you  a hope and a future.'  He goes on to say in verses 12, 13 and 14 'Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you,'  

 

Proverbs chapter 24, verses 13 and 14 reveal that the secret of gaining that hope and future lies in gaining wisdom.  They read: 'My son, eat honey for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.  Know that wisdom is such to your soul, if you find it there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.'

 

 

 

Proverbs chapter 24, verses 3 to 6  says 'By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.   A wise man is mightier than a strong man and a man of knowledge than he who has strength, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counsellors there is victory.'


 

God's plans for His church, His spiritual Israel, is for welfare, to give us a hope and a future.  Without the wisdom of God there is no hope or future.  This is why we need to look into the Christian's tutorial  which the teacher of all teachers, the Holy Spirit, will enlighten for us, to gain wisdom so that Jeremiah 29, verse 11 might be fulfilled in our lives today.

Then this spiritual house will be filled with all precious and pleasant riches, and we shall be equipped for spiritual warfare, having the victory through an abundance of counsellors.

Without reading the tutorials on my desk top publishing package I was blindly struggling, the same applies in my Christian walk.  There is a hidden power in the Bible that needs to be unlocked and we who are born of the Spirit have been given the key.  It is to have our minds renewed in the wisdom of Christ.   Then, and only then, are we each able to do the work that we have been called to do in Him, not in our own power, but by believing on Jesus and acting on His tutorial, which is the word of God


Teach me my Father

Teach me my Father to be like Jesus
in everything I say and do
teach me my Father to love my neighbour
and not to abuse the things from You
Teach me to share the gifts You send me
of love and joy and peace of mind
teach me to see the soul reaching out
from eyes that Satan has made blind
Teach me to lean on Your love my Father
change this heart of doubt and fear
teach me to say to every stranger
'Come inside ...... there's welcome here'
Teach me my Father to be like Jesus
and not to care for worldly things
teach me to tell the poor and the sick
'My Lord has healing in His wings'
Teach me to tell them of Your love
of how your work is being done
Simply because my wonderful Father .....
I believed upon Your Son

Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?'  Jesus answered and said unto them 'This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.'  John ch.6 vs.28,29