Saturday, April 20, 2013

A thought

I've been reading through Galatians and thought I'd share my thoughts with you. Galatians Chapter 4 verse 21 onwards has much to say about God's promise and letting God fulfil his promise, instead of trying to fulfil it by human effort.

Fruit from God's fulfilment is always greater than fruit from human effort. I believe God is reaffirming to us that he is bringing fruitfulness to barren places, and that he will fulfil his promise to us. He is also encouraging us to remember his promise and not try to fulfil it by human effort.

Lets ensure we stay in the promise and not run ourselves ragged by trying to fulfil it ourselves. Of course we have our part to do. There are things that Gods asks us to do, like prayer, staying in his word, loving people, relating to people, and leading people, but we do it in God's strength and not our own.

Love Jill

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

For Citylife Women - Some thoughts from Isaiah 54:1-2

The Journey, the blessing and the challenge

Isaiah 54
54 “Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants will dispossess nations
    and settle in their desolate cities.

Here are some thoughts on these verses and the meaning behind the words.

Sing: Praise God, celebrate and worship – burst forth with joy. Break out, break forth, burst. This is a spontaneous outpouring of praise to God. Even in the hard and barren times we will praise God, because God is bringing an end to barrenness and is bringing blessing and overflowing.

Children:  The word means sons  or children plural and grandchildren. This is about inheritance in the land. To have a son was about family continuity, about inheritance. Children are a gift and a blessing. We want to think in terms not only of actual children, but spiritual offspring. I believe for us this is a promise that those areas that have been barren will produce children will produce sons will produce an inheritance for the kingdom of God.

Eph 1:17-23
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Paul’s prayer was that the Ephesians would understand God’s power and his love and the amazing inheritance we have. We can do the same and pray the eyes of your heart will be enlightened to know the hope that he has called you to, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints; God gives us an inheritance in him and an inheritance of people.

Enlarge: It means to grow to make room – we are to make room for the new things God wants to do in our lives and the life of Citylife Women. We are to make room for the new people God is bringing into our lives.

Are we ready and willing to make room? What do we have to do to enlarge to embrace others, to make room for them?

The standing place is the amount of ground that we have. God is asking us to stretch out and to take more ground.

Tent: dwelling, home, habitation. We are creating a place for God's people.
Extend – stretch forth, spread out: We are to extend forth and stretch put into the place that God has given us. This is our community. This is the ground that God already has for us. Extend out and take that place. This speaks of reaching our community through relationship with people, through service to our community, through love and care for our community. We will together, discover the service that God is asking us to engage, the people he wants us to reach out to.

Curtains:  This is what separates people from one place to another – we are to stretch out, to include more, and to reach more. In the temple when Jesus died, the curtain was ripped in two to show us that there was no longer any barrier to coming into God’s presence. We are to stretch forth so that we include others in the place of God’s presence, so that we don’t make a barrier by placing our curtains to closely in.

Spare not: spare no expense, Do not withhold, do not keep back and keep for ones self- there is a cost involved. This will cost us but it will be worth it to see God’s blessing. Are we willing to spare no expense?

KJV – strengthen your stakes – the word strengthen here means to become firm and strong. God is asking us to strengthen our selves, to become secure in who we are, who we are in him!! Why? Because God is bringing his blessing and he wants us to be ready. We will be bursting at the seams – breaking out of the containment – this will be spiritually and with the number of people. The places in our lives that have been barren will be filled to the fullest and this will be God’s doing. The KJV says on the right and on the left – it actually means in all directions in this context, but the right hand and the left hand referred to the north and the south when facing east!!!! When we face east here the right and the left covers the entire city of Wollongong.

Our descendants will inherit the nations – the lands they will occupy other nations – there are two things in this for us.  To inherit the gentiles – this meant that the people that were outside the kingdom would be part of the inheritance, and the possession of the people of Israel. This is what God is saying to us; our inheritance includes the people not yet in the kingdom. The “sons” the children and the grandchildren will be more than our flesh and blood, they will be people who come into the kingdom because we were willing to grow, to strengthen to worship God and to praise him.

The second thing is that there will be people from Citylife, people who are here now or yet to come, who will go out into the nations on mission and see an inheritance among the other nations of the world. And we get to be a part of that!! Desolate cities will be inhabited; those things in our life that seem desolate and ruined, will again live!!! There is a fresh hope and a new hope for all.

Cities: Aplace of ones awakening is an alternate translation. What “place of waking” feels desolate? What in your life, your family, your city, seems desolate? God says he will make it a place that is inhabited, that is full that is overflowing with blessing. This is exciting stuff. The only question remains – will we do it?

This comes from relationship with one another. As Citylife Women we speak out who we are and who we are becoming. We are confident in our God, we are passionate about his Kingdom and we are committed to his cause.

This is who we are. WE may not feel it but we can begin to speak it out, because this is who we are. This is who God has called us to be. We are all amazing, we are all gifted, we are all blessed and God wants all of us to be a part of what he is doing on the earth and specifically that part of the earth called Wollongong. WE DO IT TOGETHER. WE NEED EVERY PERSON.

Isaiah 54 has so much in it. It tells us that we will not be put to shame or humiliated, there will be no disgrace for us, and the barrenness will never be remembered. It is the blessing and the love that God has for us that is important.The Lord of Heavens armies is on our side!!! Think about how amazing this is. God, the creator; God, the one who is our maker; God, who is the Redeemer the Holy one of Israel; the God of all the earth is on our side.

It talks of God’s love for Israel and though he was angry with them, he loves them and will not turn his face away from them. God promises to rebuild Jerusalem, to make it amazing and beautiful. We have just celebrated Easter and we remember that God shows his great love for us by sending Jesus. God dealt once and for all with our sin, by sending Jesus so that he will not turn his face away from us. We are part of God’s kingdom. We are part of the amazing and beautiful city that God is creating. God has made us secure in him. All the riches of heaven are ours.

Eph 1:3
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The enemies that come against us will not win, they will be defeated. Isaiah 54:17says this – No weapon formed against you will succeed.  Jesus has defeated every enemy.

Col 2:13-14
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

God cancelled the record of our sins – it is gone – he nailed it to the cross AND he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities, shaming them publicly on the cross. IT HAS NO POWER OVER US!!

This is going to be a new journey for us; a new way of doing things. When we embark on a journey, there is usually a lot of excitement and sometimes there is hesitation. This is where we apply faith. As we step into the future, we do it in the confidence that we have in God. We do it from a place of a passionate heart and a desire to live God’s way and see people in the kingdom.

We are a community of women. We are an amazing community of women. We have a strength within this community that God is going to use and to grow and to develop. What is community – it is ownership. As we take a healthy ownership of what God is doing amongst us we will see amazing things.

A healthy community cares about each other, challenges ideas and challenges “the norms”. A healthy community remains healthy by accepting everyone, judging no-one and by an over-riding love. We remain healthy by embracing the new, by embracing people and by putting others first.
A community remains healthy by being intentional about what it does, for us this means by being intentional in our relationships, by honouring one another and by loving one another.

As we go out into our communities, as we relate to one another, as we relate to our friends, our family our work colleagues; as we “Be a friend”, as we show God’s love to people by the way we love each other, people will come. As we tell friends about God, they will already see his love and they will come into our community of women.

This is our challenge, but I believe that each one of us has a part to play. Each one of us has a unique sphere of influence, a unique gift within and as we seek to follow God’s leading and his guidance on the journey, each of us will learn how to work together to make this happen. Our attitudes may need adjusting. Our lifestyles will have to reflect God’s way for us to live. The culture we set, the culture we develop guided by the Word of God, will be crucial.

As we embark on the journey, as we draw close to one another and to God, as we gather women along the way, we will see the barren places filled with descendants, the places that were dry and dusty will be filled with love and laughter and a joy that is attractive to other people. How the journey will infold, how we travel will be what we make it, trusting in a good and loving God to guide us. There are many unknowns for us, but we begin with the known and we move out into the unknown with full hearts and our trust and faith firmly planted in God.