It's been a while since I last blogged. Time seems to go by so fast. I found this quote whilst going through some paperwork. I'm not sure where I got the piece of paper it is on, but I do think it is so powerful and true. Read and meditate on what this is saying.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in Everyone!
And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others!"
(Nelson Mandela, inaugural president speech 1994)
These are powerful words. Imagine what we could do with and for God if we truly believed them!
9 October 2010
20 February 2010
God's Hands
Isaiah 40:12 says: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens?”
The answer is - God.
Look at the palm of your hand and make a dish. How much water can you hold in that hollow of your hand? Not much. Yet Isaiah says that the hollow of God’s hand holds all the water of the earth.
How much is that? The total water supply of the world is 326 million cubic miles (wikipedia.org). That’s a lot of water!
Now stretch out your hand, fingers as wide apart as you can. What is the distance from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your small finger? Isaiah says that all of the heavens - the planets, the stars - in the universe fit into the breadth of God’s hand.
How many planets are there? How many stars are there? Even though we cannot be accurate there are approximately 4.6 billion planets in the galaxy and 100 billion stars (100,000,000,000) in the galaxy.
God holds ALL of this in the breadth of His hand!!
Now we cannot restrict God to a human image, but this picture describes how large and all powerful God is. How safe and secure do you feel!
On top of this I love the verse in Isaiah 49:16 which God gave specifically to the Israelites, but I believe is also for us, His people: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” God has tattooed us onto the palms of his hands.
How powerful is this image – we are tattooed on the palm of God’s hands. Does this mean our names, our image? Does it matter? We are engraved on the palms of God’s hands. We are ever before Him. We are in the security of His hands!
The answer is - God.
Look at the palm of your hand and make a dish. How much water can you hold in that hollow of your hand? Not much. Yet Isaiah says that the hollow of God’s hand holds all the water of the earth.
How much is that? The total water supply of the world is 326 million cubic miles (wikipedia.org). That’s a lot of water!
Now stretch out your hand, fingers as wide apart as you can. What is the distance from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your small finger? Isaiah says that all of the heavens - the planets, the stars - in the universe fit into the breadth of God’s hand.
How many planets are there? How many stars are there? Even though we cannot be accurate there are approximately 4.6 billion planets in the galaxy and 100 billion stars (100,000,000,000) in the galaxy.
God holds ALL of this in the breadth of His hand!!
Now we cannot restrict God to a human image, but this picture describes how large and all powerful God is. How safe and secure do you feel!
On top of this I love the verse in Isaiah 49:16 which God gave specifically to the Israelites, but I believe is also for us, His people: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” God has tattooed us onto the palms of his hands.
How powerful is this image – we are tattooed on the palm of God’s hands. Does this mean our names, our image? Does it matter? We are engraved on the palms of God’s hands. We are ever before Him. We are in the security of His hands!
14 February 2010
The Jesus I Know
'The Jesus I Know' is a book I read recently of collected writings, edited by Adam Harbinson, where people share their thoughts on the Jesus they know. As I read this book I was inspired to write this short piece on the Jesus I KNOW.
The Jesus I KNOW has loved me since before I was conceived in the womb and I KNOW it. Just trying to get my head round that one is extraordinarily hard. My Christian story began at university 17 years ago. At university I met some people who seemed ‘different’ – stereotypically. They took me to hear an evangelist/speaker who made the best appeal any speaker could make for me. He said that if I would take that one step towards God, God would take the 99 steps towards me and prove He is real. ‘Okay’ I thought, prove it. Within weeks I was a completely different person. One guy I had known from the beginning at university said that all the hardness in my face had disappeared and I had softened. Up until that point I knew things had changed, but that one sentence described so well what had happened to me.
The Jesus I met all that time ago has never left me and has never stopped loving me. I KNOW His presence in my life daily. Jesus is real and living. He is not someone who has disappeared and is a legend. He is here now. I KNOW He is in the room with me as I write this. I KNOW I can talk to Him. I KNOW He speaks and intercedes on my behalf to God the Father. I KNOW His guidance, his steering. Every Christian can KNOW this too. I am continually frustrated that I cannot verbally or in written format get this point over so strongly that people would fall backwards under the sheer immensity of this truth. How powerful it is to have Jesus in our lives!
The Jesus I KNOW has loved me since before I was conceived in the womb and I KNOW it. Just trying to get my head round that one is extraordinarily hard. My Christian story began at university 17 years ago. At university I met some people who seemed ‘different’ – stereotypically. They took me to hear an evangelist/speaker who made the best appeal any speaker could make for me. He said that if I would take that one step towards God, God would take the 99 steps towards me and prove He is real. ‘Okay’ I thought, prove it. Within weeks I was a completely different person. One guy I had known from the beginning at university said that all the hardness in my face had disappeared and I had softened. Up until that point I knew things had changed, but that one sentence described so well what had happened to me.
The Jesus I met all that time ago has never left me and has never stopped loving me. I KNOW His presence in my life daily. Jesus is real and living. He is not someone who has disappeared and is a legend. He is here now. I KNOW He is in the room with me as I write this. I KNOW I can talk to Him. I KNOW He speaks and intercedes on my behalf to God the Father. I KNOW His guidance, his steering. Every Christian can KNOW this too. I am continually frustrated that I cannot verbally or in written format get this point over so strongly that people would fall backwards under the sheer immensity of this truth. How powerful it is to have Jesus in our lives!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)