Our Beloved Tinker, a gift from the Lord

 Our beloved cat, Tinker, the one shown in the last but one post (not the one spoken of in that post) has sadly had to be put to sleep after a long illness that could no longer be treated.  She had hyperactive thyroid, and ended up just skin and bone with her back legs finally giving way. We are very sad at the moment, she had been with us for sixteen years after having her from Cat's Protection Rescue Centre at the age of four. So she had a very long life filled with our love. I may not be catching up on blogger friend sites for a while. God bless all my blogger friends until next time. Stay safe in the Lord.

If I didn't have You Lord

Sometimes we can find it difficult to carry on through the trials we face in this world, and can be distracted from what our Lord is saying to us by what the enemy is putting into the carnal mind.  The following are two songs I wrote some time ago concerning this:-

Cause me my God to trust in You

Cause me my God to trust in You

cause me to live in Your will                                     

help me to rest in Your love for me

cause me my Lord to be still

Cast from my heart all doubt and fear

take from my flesh life's pain

fill me with sunshine and righteousness

wash me with faith's gentle rain

Take all the sorrow this world has known

take it - replace it with love

Send forth Your Spirit - make us Your own

bring life to this world from above

Cause me my God to trust in You

cause me to live in Your will

help me to rest in Your love for me

cause me my Lord to be still

Yes, help me to rest in Your love for me

cause me my Lord to be still

If I didn't have You Lord

If I didn't have You Lord there'd be no point to life

for without You there's nothing, only sickness and strife

You was sent by the Father with a message of love

to show me the way Lord to my home high above

Oh once I was lonely and lost in the night

my life wasn't good Lord, no nothing was right

You came with forgiveness for all I'd done wrong

now I offer my praise Lord with the words of this song

Oh Jesus my Saviour, my wonderful King

You left Your great throne Lord, and every good thing

You came in my likeness and took all the shame

so that I might be healed Lord by the power in Your name

I know that there's nothing that I would desire

above Your Salvation 'though I walk through the fire

I know that You're with me every step of the way

the world lost a sinner when I met You that day

Yes the world lost a sinner - when I met You that day

the Goodness of God

There is a scripture that says 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added', Matthew ch. 6 v.33 and it has proven true throughout my walk with the Lord. There are many times in my life where my husband and myself have come through situations that without the Lord's intervention we might have been in a sorry place.

We set out for Australia in our early marital years on just a £10 assisted passage, with very little money for our future. What we enjoyed thoroughly was the four plus weeks on a liner, visiting many countries that were spectacular and staying with my brother in Australia until we found work. We met a New Zealand couple on the ship that we stayed in touch with, and after spending some time in Australia we decided to go to New Zealand, thinking about living there instead. Shortly after arriving we travelled to Rotorua, where my husband was offered a job and we were also offered a house to rent which was owned by the man who offered the job. My husband  decided not to take the job as there was a very strong smell of sulphur there  in the sulphur springs and it is a volcanic area. 

My husband phoned the man he had worked for in Australia to ask if his job was still there, he said that it was and that he would welcome him back. We returned to Australia and rented a flat in the area where we had previously lived. It was a ground floor flat, and one morning there was a light 'tap, tap' on the front door. When I opened the door I could not believe my eyes. I gazed down upon a heavily pregnant tortoiseshell coated cat. Could this little creature actually have tapped on our door with her claws? She walked slowly through the open door.  'Quick, find something for her to lay on' I called to my husband, 'I think she is about to have kittens.'  My husband searched around and quickly found a cardboard box in which he placed an old cardigan of mine. She had several kittens, all of which had a cleft pallet and did not live long at all. I noticed the mother cat had the most horrific infection and we decided that the only thing we could do was to take her to the vets.

At that time, until my husband got back into work we did not have much money to spare but the plight of the little cat was such that our financial situation was not the priority, so off to the vets we went.  The cat was treated and we were assured that  with antibiotics and tender loving care she would recover fully. The bill came to $25. The next day our landlord called to see us. The flat above us had been occupied by some young men and for a long time there had been a lot of people coming and going to the flat, and one night the police had raided it and found drugs there. Now, after the occupants had been taken away, the landlord was clearing the place and he found two Chevrolet cylinder heads that the young men had discarded in the rubbish. Knowing that my husband was a mechanic, he gave them to him in case he might be able to use them. My husband did not have a use for them but advertised them for sale and sold them for - guess what? twenty five dollars!  At the end of the row of flats there was a Russian lady who loved cats and had several. She wanted to take the little cat in and so we gave her to her as we did not know where she had come from and had searched in the area for her owner. She was possibly feral.

There was another time when we had gone from the UK to Canada to live. We came out of the airport and walked down to the nearest bus stop in order to travel down into the town. A young man pulled up at the bus stop and asked us if we would like a lift into town. We thanked him and got into the car, his little son was in there too. During the ten minute drive my husband spoke to him about how he would be looking for a job, and the young man said that he worked as a salesman in a garage and that he had to call in to see his boss for a moment. He drove to his workplace and his boss came out to talk to my husband saying that there was a job for a mechanic going there, and also that in a fortnight a duplex house near where he lived was going up for rent.  The young salesman then said that his wife was away working as a model for a fortnight and that he and his son were going that day to be with her. He said that we could stay in his apartment for the fortnight and took us down to see it and gave us the keys. 

We could not believe what was happening, and thanked him very much. To cut a long story very short the next day we thought about whether we wanted to stay in Canada, as we had been wondering whether we would prefer to go back to Australia, even though everything seemed to be working together for us to stay there. We discussed it, and decided that we would rather go back to Australia, so we wrote a letter to the young man thanking him very much, gave it to his boss along with the keys, and thanked him very much too. Then we flew to Toronto, where the world Trade Fair was on, spent a day and night there and returned home,, turning up at my mother's door and asked her if she could put us up for a short time until we got work, which she did :-) We later returned to Australia.

I can only say that I can not imagine 

doing all the travels that we have done 

without  the goodness of God being 

our strength and supplier.

 I truly say:-

Second Nature

A strange thing happened this morning.  I was in my workroom and thinking about putting another post up, wondering what to write about. Recently our son had clipped a dying conifer in our garden, and told us how to get new growth come into it. He knew all about gardening and had several years ago run his own gardening business.  New growth has started to come into it as we have continued to follow his instructions. 

As I sat in front of my computer pondering on what to post on my blog, I noticed one of my booklets that I had written called 'Days in my life'. I felt to open it and opened straight to something I had written called  'Second Nature'.  I put this post up a few years ago and have decided to put it up again as it also speaks about a dying tree being brought back to life.

SECOND NATURE

The tree had appeared to be dying and was almost completely brown on one side.  It was a conifer, originally bright green in colour, which I had planted in front of the window not long after we had moved into our last house and I liked it very much.    'Cut it down' my husband had said when it first began to turn brown late in Summer 2004, but I had not wanted to and had left it alone over the Winter months. 

Now it was February 2005 and I noticed tiny green shoots sprouting from both trunk and dry brown branches and I was overjoyed, not only because the tree was not going to die, but because I was being taught something by the Lord through the tree just when I desperately needed it.

Sometimes it can be extremely hard to focus on the Spiritual when the carnal mind will constantly focus on the flesh, and many times we will look negatively on ourselves and one another because of this, dwelling more on the old sinful nature instead of the new creation which is forming within us.

Eagerness to learn comes as 'second nature' to me but God has a principle when teaching us and it is 'line upon line, precept on precept'.  'It would be like throwing the whole of the Oxford dictionary at you at once' said my digital imaging course tutor when I had wanted to know something that I was not ready to learn.

There had been many areas in my life, and still are, where I felt I had failed in my Christian walk and most of the self condemnation had grown out of dwelling on what needed to be changed instead of what the Lord had already done in me.  I had not actually realized this until the incident with the tree brought it to my attention.

I was being reminded not to fix my gaze on the old me and my human capabilities, but to look at the new spiritual creature that God was creating through Jesus and all the benefits that came with being a child of God.  As far as God was concerned, that old creature was dead.  Verse 16 of 2 Corinthians ch.5 tells us not to regard anyone from a human point of view, and verse 13 of Colossians ch.2 tells us that though we were once dead in trespasses, we have been made alive with Christ.  Human mind and eyes will limit what is possible both in personal salvation and prayer by focusing on the old creation instead of the new.  

As a new creation in Christ Jesus all things are possible to him who believes. Mark ch.9 v.23  Just as it says in Genesis chapter 25 v.5 'Abraham left everything he owned to his son Isaac', in Jesus I inherit all things given to Him by God.  My part is to put on my new nature by allowing God to renew my mind in His Son Jesus so that I have the mind of Christ.

Colossians ch. 3 describes both natures as follows:-

Old nature

Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander and foul talk.   

New nature

Compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forbearing one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.  And above all these put on love.  

We are encouraged in Ephesians ch.4 v.22 - 24 to 'Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the Spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.'

Just as with my tree the new green shoots were gradually replacing the old dead wood, so too am I gradually being conformed to the image of my creator.

The following is a poem that I wrote at that time, reflecting my self condemnation and the Lord's encouragement to me to concentrate on my 'second nature' rather than my first.  

Look and see

All that look - that look on me
see only here a dying tree
In brittle branch and withered wood
they find no beauty - see no good
perceiving just what would have been
if You had not come on my scene

But shoots of green they do not see
new budding leaves that struggle free
from lifeless form that once was me
For carnal mind and human eyes
both dwell and gaze on all that dies
and in this chrysalis of tree
will fail to see eternity

Oh all that look - look again at me
look now through eyes of faith and see
the hand of Jesus Christ - God's Son
gaze on the work that's being done
See miracle of power to save
a soul once destined for the grave

This Saviour whom my heart does love
has come from God on wings of dove
to change my destiny of strife
and bring to me eternal life
So look again upon this tree
see everywhere new greenery
Don't look upon the dying wood
See my Saviour's beauty - see my Saviour's good

'Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.'  2 Corinthians ch.4 v.16' 

God's will or mine ?

When I first came to the Lord I was baptized and came up out of the water speaking in a language I had never learned, in the scriptures we are told it is speaking mysteries to God, which no man understands  ( 1 Corinthians ch. 14 v.2 ). Almost immediately I felt as if I was communicating with the Lord through the Word written and through poems and songs that started coming into my mind.

One of the first poems that came to mind was as if I was being asked a question by the Lord, I called it 'What do you want child?'

WHAT DO YOU WANT CHILD? 

 'What do you want child ' the Lord will now ask

'is it riches, fortune and fame?

or is it great wisdom and knowledge of God

to bring help to the blind and the lame?

Only you can decide, just like Solomon did

the choice is now laid at your feet

but this one thing I'll tell you child - choose now the best

and your joy will be full and complete

As I journeyed on with the Lord there were thoughts which came into my mind which were also in the form of poems and songs. The following is one of them.

A THOUGHT THAT I HAVE

There's a thought that I have in my heart Lord
a desire above all that I seek

It's to serve You according to Your will

yet I know in this world I am weak

But although in myself there is weakness

I know You are the One Who is strong

So teach me Your ways and Your will Lord

that I might serve You all day long

'I will love Thee O Lord my strength.' Psalm 18 v.1

In these times many appear to have fallen away from, or do not want to hear about, Jesus and seem to be more interested in fame and fortune. I finish this post with a short poem that reflects this.

MY LORD IS STRONGER THAN MY FOE

Have care and compassion now gone out of fashion
and 'Make them all pay' become phrase of the day
They don't seem to care about me and you

and only seem guided by 'Revenue'

As I gaze in wonder - this I know

My Lord is stronger than my foe

I don't get what I've paid for 'God's wrath - eternal strife'

I get what Jesus prayed for - and that's eternal life

The shining light

The greatest light  in this darkened world is JESUS CHRIST. He is the TRUE LIGHT, and is not confined by walls, distance, or time.

God does not live in a building

God does not live in a building
in a house made by human design
where the walls have been built on traditional sand
and mans’ rules are used for a plumb line

No God does not live in a building
where some words that are preached are a lie
where mankind - the created - are worshipped
and their idols are lifted up high

For the temple of God is not made of brick walls
fixed in place using sand and cement
no it’s built upon Jesus the cornerstone
Who for our salvation was sent

He came like a sun in this darkened world
to bring knowledge of God and His ways
bringing light for man’s blinded eyes to see
giving warmth to man’s soul with His rays

When His time came to go - to return to His home 
He did not leave the world without light
but established His church as a witness to be
like a moon shining bright in the night 

Just as the moon reflects the sun in the night, so we have to reflect the light of the Son in this darkened world. Whatever gift we have been given to share, as part of the body of Christ on earth, the only source we can use to reflect that light is the Word of God .

In Mark ch. 16 v. 15 Jesus says 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation'.  Hebrews ch. 13 v. 8 says 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever' It is stated in that Jesus was the Word of God made flesh. John ch. 1 v. 14 says 'the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.'

My love and gratitude to the Lord is  reflected perfectly in a song I wrote some time ago, which I would like to share in this post.

I'll never stop loving You Jesus

I'll never stop loving You Jesus 

I'll never stop praising Your name

Great shepherd so faithful and true Lord 

'twas for your lost sheep that You came

I know I had strayed in this world Lord

my eyes had been dimmed by my sin

I'd wandered about in the valleys

gone lame through the sickness within

I'll never stop thanking You Jesus

for calling me back to the fold

The wolves they had tried to devour me

I was injured and lost and so cold

Then I lifted my eyes to the mountains

as I heard Your soft voice calling me

You whispered 'I love you my lost one'

It was then that I started to see

I'll never stop needing You Jesus

to guide me and lead me back home

to be with my Father forever

no more from Your side will I roam

The path it is narrow and lonely

and the dangers are great - this I know

but with You Lord beside me I'll make it

as You show me the right way to go

As I walk down this path to salvation

I see others turned blind and gone lame

and I tell them the Father still loves them

they'll be saved if they call on Your name

My eyes they get clearer each day Lord

as the light of Your love leads me on

every step that I take towards You Lord

makes my lame legs grow healthy and strong

'For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.'

 Luke ch. 19 v.10

Thank You Lord

Thank You Lord for Your mercy so tender

thank You Lord for a love pure and true

Thank You Lord for revealing the Father

so that I could be fashioned like You

Thank You Lord that I'm part of Your body

thank You Lord we're becoming Your bride

Thank You Lord for Your Spirit of comfort

sent to lead me back home to Your side

Thank You Father that You loved and forgave us

thank You Father that You sent Your dear Son

thank You Lord that You died to redeem us

thank You Lord for the battle You've won

'He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not. He came to His own home and His own people received Him not. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man , but of God.'     John ch. 1 vs. 10-13