Enough is enough.

Have you got fed up enough of the state of things in your marriage, in your family, at your work place, in your body, in your community, even dare I say it in your church, to say "that's it, that's enough, this means war!" Have you found that as gifted and anointed as we are as Christians those things that we have tried to fix through good counsel, through medicine, through trying to be better those things "rather grow worse". You see what we're going through may not be physical! There's a war going on beyond Iraq, beyond Russia, it is the war for our personal peace. And when we get fed up enough we'll ask God for the whole armour so that we will be protected from those things that come to capture our peace and destroy us . The words of this song sung by CeCe Winans says 'anoint my hands anoint my feet' to do war to take back what the enemy has stolen from us.

Living with Differences

(the above picture is my friend who waited many years for this day)

21 years [and one day] I can't believe it. Looking back I didn't think too much about married life and definitely not 21 years of it. The first three years I think were hardest because both of us came to realize that we were so different. We shared the same interests, love for God, church , ministry, education, traveling, reading but you don't live in church, you aren't continually traveling or reading. The majority of the time it was us - together - a lot of the time. Our emphases and priorities were often dissimilar.We had to deal with our disparities .These of course were points of tension. It is precisely these points of tension that the enemy highlights in our minds, he plays them over and over - I don't know if it is the same for men, it would be interesting to find out. He did the same to Eve, he allowed her to concentrate on what she didn't have thereby losing focus on what she did. I know now that it was the grace of God that kept us together at those times. It was then and is now the enemy's desire to 'sift us like wheat' and if Jesus doesn't make intercession for us we wont make it, left to our own devices we will bite that apple and then be forced to live with the consequences.
That said making the dissimilar and the similar mould together until you can't see where the dissimilarities and the similarities are is a mystery - and an on going process. The creation of marriage is a Godly one, it's not mass produced by robots but one that involves not only the Creator but also the creation. I guess the best anology is not really clay but wood. A good carpenter can look at the grain and the markings on a piece of wood and know how to craft it in order to bring out its inner beauty but some quite harsh tools are used to bring about that final work.

Pray one for another. We need it!

Be Encouraged.

A little encouragement goes a long way, I'm of the opinion that we don't encourage people enough and I think this is borne out of the fact that we don't recieve it enough so we don't give it and so it goes on.



Barnabas whose name means 'Son of Encouragment' personified his name. The book of Acts tells us how Paul came to Jerusalem and was not trusted. No wonder as prior to becoming a follower of Jesus he would capture and throw Christians into prison. Of course then there was air of suspician. Was he 'fakin it' or was this all a ploy to imprison more disciples.



Barnabas steps up to the plate. He presents Paul to the apostles and staked his own reputation on the truth of his conversion. Although not witnessing it himself he told the apostles that he (Paul) had seen Jesus on the way to Damascus, that the Lord had spoken to Saul and of how he had preached boldly in Damascus. At some point Barnabas must have taken the time out to speak to Paul, listen to this testimony and find out what he was doing as a result of that testimony.



Imagine how Paul must have felt having this veteran standing up and speaking on his behalf. Imagine if Barnabas had not spoken. The apostles may have refused to hear him, much of the New Testament might not have been written.



Let us take time to encourage, you don't know the impact you will make.



Remember .....pray one for another