Come into the Light

I truly believe my dog can tell the time. Every morning at 7am, she sits by our front door and starts whining to be taken for her first walk of the day. The problem with this is that South Africa does not have day light saving, so in winter 7am is still pretty much dark.

Although our walking path does have some lighting, its coverage is limited to only certain areas of the grass. However, my dog always insists on doing her business in the darkest part of grass, which has forced me to carry a torch to see, to pick up after her.

This morning ritual made me think of how often we too like to do our ‘dirty business’ in the dark. We keep these dark secrets about ourselves and our lives from others, hoping no one will see them.

However, I’ve discovered that it only needs a tiny speck of light to invade the darkness. When we stop hiding and get vulnerable enough to reveal our inner, darkest secrets with someone we can trust, it frees us of the shame and guilt that we have been carrying.

Coming into the light to live an authentic life, without pretending, without any secrets, is the only way we will ever find peace and joy. So today, ask yourself if there is some darkness in you that needs God’s light to shine through. Only when we are touched by God’s light, can we shine His light for others. It is God’s light that illuminates our path and guides our steps in the direction He wants to take us.

The Cross of Christmas

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’s birth on Christmas day, 25th December, (the real reason for the season), have you ever wondered why God had to send Jesus to earth to be born as a baby? 

Although the Nativity story is found in the Gospel books of Mathew and Luke, having recently studied the book of Hebrews, I was amazed to come across many verses pertaining to why Jesus was born. 

So, I thought I’d share them with you as you ponder and reflect on the celebration of the birth of our King and Savior, Jesus Christ…

1. Jesus was born so that He could become the son of God that would make us His children and God our Heavenly Father - Hebrews 1:5; 5:5
2. Jesus was born as a human of flesh and blood so that He would no longer be immortal but would be able to die so that His blood could be poured out for us. - Hebrews 2: 14
3. Jesus needed to be born, so He could die in order to destroy the devil through His death- Hebrews 2:14
4. Jesus needed to die to deliver and free us from sin and break the power of death and the devil - Hebrews 2:15
5. Jesus was born so He could become human like us and know how it feels to be tempted and suffer - Hebrews 2:18
6. Jesus was born to become the guarantee and mediator of a new covenant between ourselves and God - Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15
7. Jesus was born so He could have a body that could be sacrificed like an unblemished Lamb for our sins- Hebrews 10:5

When you add the Cross to Christmas, it gives meaning to the purpose of Jesus’s birth. Our wreaths of holly and berries symbolize a wreath for His death and represent the crown of thorns He had to wear and the berries, the drops of blood that dripped from His brow. 

The Christmas lights represent the light that Jesus brings to the darkness of the world, to our own darkness and how we should be reflecting His light to others. Whether you have a star or an Angel on top of your Christmas tree, both are symbols of God’s glory that ushered in the announcement of Jesus’s birth.  

The very tree represents the wood that was cut up to become the cross. The ornaments we put on our trees can represent things we should nail to the tree or they can also represent our blessings and inherited gifts we have through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  

Christmas offers us the hope of eternity in Heaven. The Old Testament’s sacrifices were just a parole but with the New Testament and Covenant, we are given a full pardon. Yes, the devil may still seem active in our lives, but he is like a dog that has been chained up to the stake of the Cross.  He can growl and bark, but he can no longer harm us, as long as we stay out of his reach. 

Christmas is God reaching out to us.  It is the celebration of His incarnation that He is Emmanuel and is always with us. It should not just be a holiday tradition, but become our response to God for sending Jesus to restore our relationship with Him.

Wishing you all a Blessed and meaningful Christmas!

Much love, 

Samantha

The Fragrance of the Thorns

I like to wear red on Good Friday to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed for me and the color of the love that fully paid the debt of my sins.  On this Good Friday, as I was taking my dog out for her early morning walk, I came across a thorn tree and pondered on how a rose, such a beautiful, fragrant flower, can yield such piercing, painful thorns. As a believer that there are no co-incidences when it comes to God’s creation, I think it was to remind us that there is always something good in everything that we might consider to be bad. 

When we reflect on the pain Jesus had to endure when the crown of thorns was pressed and pierced into His skill, so can imagine His red blood dripping down His face, and we can share in His agony on this very dreadful ‘bad’ day. What makes this painful Friday ‘good’ is what Jesus’s death did for us.  Were it not for Jesus’s unselfish sacrifice, our relationship with God could not have been restored.  Jesus died to pay the full price of our sins, to purchase our righteousness as a free gift of our salvation.    

The rose epitomizes that fact that there is goodness amidst the bad. In life there are things we deem to be pleasant (roses) but also the things we dislike and can harm us (thorns).  I love it that God gave roses such a beautiful scent, as a reminder to us that our pain produces a fragrance that will always turn bad things into good. And how fitting that a red rose has become the symbol of everlasting love. 

So to go back to Good Friday, what makes that Friday good is to see that day through the lens of what Jesus’s death achieved for our good, and the love with with He did it with.  Death was conquered on that day and through Jesus, our old nature can be crucified and put to death too.

C'ing into 2024

As I paused to reflect on the start of 2024, I asked God to give me a word to carry into the blank pages of another year.  In an instant, a lot of 'C' words came flooding into my mind.  I had to smile as God knows how much I love alliteration, although I must admit I was not so keen at first on His choice of letter.  When I think of the reference to the C word, the dreaded Cancer word comes to mind.  However, I was reminded of the verse in Psalms 112:7 that we won’t need to fear bad news when our hearts are steadfast, trusting, and believing that God will carry us through the year, even if there is a diagnosis of cancer. 

CHANGE.  - We may have set many goals and resolutions in 2023 that never materialized because we didn’t make the necessary choices to effect the change. We know God never changes, but He does change our circumstances and there are some things God wants to help us change.  These are our attitude, our perspective, our behavior, our responses, and our habits.

CHOICES - To effect this change, we need to be making the right choices.  To choose is to decide.  Will we serve God or will we choose to serve man or self?  When we choose God, we are choosing life and a blessing.  As God’s chosen, let us choose what is right, what is pure, and what is pleasing to God.

CONFIDENCE – To be confident, is to have no doubts, fears, or uncertainty.  God calls us to have boldness in the abilities He has gifted us with. He wants us to be confident in our identity of knowing who we are in Christ and what that means.  He wants us to know that we are victors in every battle of life and lastly, God wants us to have a relationship with Him as our loving Father, to be bold enough to go to Him with confidence.

COMPASSION – To have compassion is to have a tenderness towards someone's suffering and misfortune. We express compassion with care and concern. God expects us to feel and be filled with compassion and be moved to act in doing the right thing, to see justice and mercy administered.

CLARITY – God calls us to write down our vision and goals.  I believe there is something powerful that happens in the spiritual realm when we write things down.  I also want to think clearly, speak clearly, write clearly, hear clearly, and see clearly.  Each night our goal should be to go to sleep with a clear conscience and to wake up each morning clear-minded.

CALM – We are called to give gentle answers and not fly off the handle every time someone pushes our buttons.  We need discernment to remain calm when the storms of life come and not react or respond with anger.

CHEERFUL  / CHARISMATIC – If you are a moody person like me, you will know the struggle of trying not to let our emotions rule our lives.  God calls us to be cheerful, not just because it is good for our health, but because it attracts others.

CONTROL – We need to relinquish our control over our lives and give it fully to God to rule and reign over every aspect of it. The only control we need to master is our self-control – over our tempers, over our words, over our eating, and our temptations.

COMMITTED – God calls us to not only be fully committed to Him but also to our goals and remain loyal in our relationships. We need to commit our plans and our ways to God daily, giving Him our all in everything we do.

CREATIVE – Last, but not least, we need to tap into our creative side.  I believe each of us is creative in one way or another.  Find a hobby that appeals to you and discover the creativity God has blessed you with. Creating is an outlet that brings our soul joy and is a lifetime treasure waiting to be discovered. 

So let us see into 2024 with these C words to live by, as signposts to help lead and motivate us each day.

God bless you all!

Finding Jesus in the Christmas Tree

I was recently surprised to discover that a dear friend does not put up a tree at Christmas, believing it to have pagan roots. As a huge fan of the Christmas tree, it set me on a mission to find Christian meaning to this age-old tradition. It is my hope that this blog will give new meaning to this Christmas symbol and that you will see your tree in a new light.

It is true that the origins of a cut down, decorated tree may have its root in paganism, as can be read in Jeremiah 10:1-5. In later years, pagans would also bring fir trees into their homes at Yuletide because it represented everlasting life and fertility.  However, history tells us that it was an 8th-century English missionary in Germany that first introduced the tree as a symbol of remembrance of Christ’s birth. Author Henry Van Dyke recounted these events in his fictionalized short story “The First Christmas Tree.”

Considering that the curse was introduced through a tree in the Garden of Eden, I believe it is quite fitting that our redemption is signified through the Tree of Life, Jesus, who is our Vine and as Christians, we are His branches.  Conifers, like the Pine tree are also evergreen, which represents the everlasting life we get through Christ. The Cross that Jesus was crucified to was also made of wood from a tree. And lastly, its triangular shape represents the trinity, which makes this tree the perfect representative, especially when we consider the many tree references there are in the Bible.

As Christians, we get to choose whether to put a star or an angel on the top of our tree, both of which heralded the announcement and place of where Jesus was born. It is also fitting that the fir tree mentioned in Isaiah 41:19; and 60:13 draws attention to the future glory of the temple in Jerusalem that would be built with its noble wood.

The bright twinkling lights on the Christmas tree is a metaphor for the light of Christ, who illuminates the darkness with His hope and salvation.  The soft glow is also a reminder to us to shine the light of Jesus to others. 

Each ornament can be carefully chosen to represent something to do with Jesus, His birth, the characters of the Nativity scene, or even something to represent the many gifts God has given us. Each ornament then becomes a small piece of the Christmas story and of our faith and blessings, woven into each branch. These symbols can remind us of the sacredness of the season and our love for God, who gave us the greatest gift of His son. Having replaced many of my ornaments over the year with ones with more meaning, I can honestly say that this does make a difference. Even a snowman can remind us that Jesus has washed us clean as white as snow!

Putting up the tree together as a family can become a sacred ceremony instead of just a holiday tradition. Finding Jesus in the tree helps us connect with the spiritual essence of this special season and the reason we celebrate it.  As a family, it is a special time where we can feel the presence of Jesus, through the joy, love and peace we experience, whilst singing along to Christmas Carols.

In a world filled with the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations, finding Jesus offers a moment of respite and spiritual connection. It is a reminder that amidst the festivities, the heart of Christmas lies in the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To me, Christmas is not just one day, but a season and spirit of goodwill and joy as we gather in love to remember and celebrate the birth of our King!

Lastly, the gifts under the tree that we get to give and receive from our loved ones is a reminder that it is Jesus’s birthday!  Yet, it is His presence that is more important that the presents, for they represent the many gifts we receive spiritually.  It also teaches us to be generous and meaningful givers.

This year, let us find a deeper connection to our faith by seeking the presence of Jesus in the heart of our Christmas decorations, traditions and celebrations.

Wishing you and your family a meaningful and tree-mendous Christ-mas and a faith-filled festive season!

Communion and Baptism in the Cross of Easter

God has laid on my heart the symbolism of Communion and Baptism in reference to Easter’s message of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, which I wanted to share with you.

We know from scripture that the wine taken at communion symbolises Jesus’s blood, which was shed for us all at the Cross of Calvary.  Wine, in essence, is the blood of many grapes.  The power that unites those grapes was extracted in the wine press of the Cross.

We also know that the bread is a symbol of His flesh, which was broken and beaten, which is why we break the bread. When you think of how bread is made, it is just many grains of flour that are brought together by water.  With us representing the body of Christ, we too are brought together by the waters of baptism, and baked in the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

When we take Communion, we remember what Jesus did for us on the Cross and identify with the pain and suffering He experienced, by taking the bread of life, His body, that saved us from our sin, and drinking the redemption wine, His blood, that was poured out that washed us clean. Therefore, Easter is the perfect time to take Communion, to remember what Jesus did on the Cross. 

Looking back at Jesus’s crucifixion, I often wondered why Jesus refused the first wine but accepted the second. I was interested to learn that the first wine had been mixed with myrrh or gall, a narcotic that is often given to those being crucified to help numb the pain. Yet, Jesus chose to fully experience the pain, as we painfully witnessed through the accuracy in the Passion movie. 

It was only when Jesus said He was thirsty, that He accepted the soured wine or vinegar, which was a common drink in those days to alleviate thirst.  In a way, by quenching His thirst, Jesus was actually prolonging the pain. He drank the wine of His Father’s wrath down to its very last dregs, and He did so for us—that we might enjoy the new wine of His Father’s love, and live redeemed forever in the glorious presence of the one who took no shortcuts in saving us.

After the recent baptism of a dear friend’s daughter, I was reminded of the spiritual significance of this event in that you are exchanging your old worn and weak wineskin for a new stretchable and strong one so that we can fully receive the pouring of the new spiritual wine of Christ. You are laying down the old you and taking on a newness in the spirit. In a sense, what Baptism symbolises is the crucifying of your flesh and the resurrection of the new you, full of the Holy Spirit’s power and effectiveness to keep you walking in that newness, and daily reminding yourself that your flesh and the old you are dead.  Baptism is a declaration to Satan and the world that you are now committed to being all in with Christ.

As I remember back to my own Baptism; I was so excited to be given the opportunity to have it done in the Jordon River. Yet, a few weeks before the departure of our trip to the Holy Land I felt God telling me not to wait and to have it done sooner at the Baptist Church I was attending at the time, which I did. I strongly believe that being Baptised before going, prepared me spiritually for the powerful encounter I had with God, and had I not obeyed Him, I would have had a more glorious setting of a baptism, but without the lasting and powerful effect. 

If you have never been Baptised with the full immersion of water, may I urge you to take this next step of faith in your walk with God? If it was important enough for Jesus to do and because He tells us to, this is an act of obedience where we get to publicly declare the decision made in our hearts to follow Jesus.  From my experience, it is where you receive the victory in truly becoming an overcoming Christian to live with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit, and there is no better time to be baptised than at Easter.

Gearing Down to a Powerful Finish to 2022

With my daughter getting her first car recently, our family conversations have leaned a lot towards driving and cars. This got me thinking about how you need to gear down when you need extra power and how appropriate this seemed for finishing this year off well.

So here are 3 things to help you gear down to give you more power, so you can finish this year less weary and drained, and more in the Christmas mood.

1)   Be Mindful - In this season of ‘rush, hurry, perfect’, focus your mind on being fully aware and conscious of your thoughts and actions, and stop cruising on auto-pilot by just going through the motions.  Focus on being kind, finding joy in simple tasks and looking for the blessings in each day. Make every moment memorable, by choosing to be mindful of it. Be wise in accepting invitations.  If your body is crying out for rest, listen to it and pause instead of trying to make up for all the lost opportunities caused by Covid.

2)  Be Meaningful - Have a purpose for every action and choose to manage the time in each day, that brings meaning to your life and others.  Stop following the crowds by chasing after traditions that you cannot afford or have no meaning to you. Discover what Christmas and this season mean to you and then purposefully choose how you want to celebrate it. When buying gifts, don’t just choose the one on special, but find something with meaning that the recipient will appreciate.

3)  Be Merry - I used to associate being merry with being intoxicated, but according to the dictionary, merry also means to be jovial, jolly, showing high spirits, cheerful, joyous and carefree. We can choose not to be a grinch during this season and instead of being impatient and rushed, slow down to chat with the person next to you in the long queues.  Give someone a gap in the hectic traffic jams. When we wear a smile each day, instead of a frown, we welcome a friendly response that will turn our days from being mundane and manic to being merry moments.

In closing, this season is what you will make of it.  We all know the real reason for this season, so don’t let the shops and the world make you focus on anything but Jesus.  Jeremiah 31:25-26 promises us that those who feel tired and worn out, will find new life and energy, and when they sleep, they will wake up refreshed. 

Let’s stand on that promise and not grow weary in this season, but draw our strength from Jesus, as we keep our eyes and mind focused, with purpose, on Him.  Gear down to get that extra power and speed needed to finish 2022 well, so we can start 2023 feeling refreshed and ready for a new year, and not exhausted and depleted from overextending ourselves during this season.  

Halloween - Halo please!

I’ve never understood how a parent can dress their child up as a devil, and then act surprised when they behave like one. As a Christian parent, Halloween has always been a challenging holiday for us raising our only daughter. With her growing up in Scotland, we never wanted her to feel left out or excluded from the fun of dressing up, the Halloween school parties, or the trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood.

Halloween’s original roots may surprise you. All Saint’s Day on the 1st of November is also called All Hallows Day. It’s a day when many believers around the world thank God for His faithfulness to their loved ones who have died. It’s a celebration that they died in the faith and are resting in the presence of God.

The day before, the 31st of October use to be called ‘All Hallow’s Eve’, which was later shortened to Halloween. Unfortunately, the day’s original reason to celebrate has since been twisted by Satan, where the focus has been moved from celebrating the life of the deceased to death itself. Satanic worshippers have even chosen this night to do their most evil work, which is why many Christians choose to reject participating in Halloween altogether.

However, when you consider the story in 1 Corinthians 8, we see that the Church in Corinth faced a similar dilemma - to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples. Although not totally the same thing, we can learn from Paul’s advice that it’s a matter of our conscience. If we have doubts that celebrating it will condemn us, then we shouldn’t eat the meat/candy.

Doing anything that does not proceed out of our faith is a sin. Our righteousness is not determined whether we participate in Halloween or not. We are saved by the work of Christ alone (Acts 4:12), not by observing or abstaining from holidays (Colossians 2:16). Christians that take their kids trick-or-treating are still Christians. And Christians that stay home and ignore the doorbell are also Christians. We shouldn’t judge others by the choices they make.

For me, rejecting Halloween altogether is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I believe that with the right discernment and wisdom, this holiday can offer us opportunities to share our faith in a practical way. As long as we can steer our children away from dressing up as zombies, devils, witches, and other evil personas, this part of the holiday can still be fun. I have purposely not included a ghost, because we all grew up with Casper the friendly ghost. One year, a lady from my church added a halo to her daughter’s ghost costume and proudly announced to everyone that she was the Holy Ghost! I am not sure if God would have approved, but it sure did make us laugh!

This photo is of my daughter’s first Halloween outfit as a pumpkin, which makes me so grateful for the inspired Christian pumpkin message. If you’ve never heard it before, it goes like this: - God picks us up from the pumpkin patch, washes off all our dirt, scoops out all our yucky seeds of sin, carves out for us a new smiling face, and puts His light inside of us, to shine out for all the world to see. This story started a fond family Halloween tradition when we use to live in Scotland, where we would carve out a pumpkin with a smiley face and leave it by our front door.

Living back in South Africa, it seems we are fast following the trends of America, the UK, and the rest of the world, by welcoming the hype and consumerism around this spooky holiday. It would therefore be foolish to try to avoid or shield our children from taking part in it altogether. However, we can change our perspective on how we choose to engage with it and thus use every opportunity to our advantage.

For example, we can share the Gospel of faith over fear and try to educate unbelievers about the schemes of the devil and the path it leads to when you choose to focus on death and all things evil. It may seem like just a bit of fun to many, but if they knew the gates they were opening into their soul, they just might think again.

Trick or treating also offers us the opportunity to get to know our neighbours and is a good platform to be friendly. Your selection of treats doesn’t always have to be sweets either but can include fruits or healthier, less sugary sweets, which I’m sure every parent will thank you for.

I am grateful that many Churches choose to offer an alternative party to Halloween, such as using a Superhero theme, where kids can still participate in the full fun of the holiday, but without the reasons that cause many young children to be plagued by nightmares.

So, however, you choose to observe Halloween this year, do it with a clear conscience, knowing that God sees your heart and your motives. Rejecting the evil part, whilst keeping the good can be achieved when we do it from faith. And as we carve out our pumpkins and take photos of our children in their cute costumes, let us also spend time in prayer for the protection of our loved ones, our Churches, our nation, and for every unbeliever’s eyes to be opened to the spiritual realm that they are innocently dabbling in.

The Spiritual Symbolism of Sukkot

The recent week-long Jewish celebration of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is one of the Bible's most joyful holidays. Besides building temporary huts or booths and feasting together, Sukkot is also an agricultural celebration of God's provision during the harvest season. It's a time to rejoice in His abundance and give thanks for all that He has done. As my Jewish boss aptly shared, sitting inside the sukkah shelter feels like God wrapping His arms around you in a hug after the sombre season of repentance ending with Yom Kippur.

As families gather together to build and live in a temporary, handmade shelter, they remember the 40 years their ancestors spent wandering in the wilderness of the desert on their way to the Promised Land, after escaping slavery in Egypt. The first two days are considered the holiest where work, other than that related to Sukkot, is forbidden.

The word Sukkot or Sukkah means shelter, which is a significant part of the observance of this joyous holiday. You could say it is a visible symbol of God’s presence, protection, and His gracious provision. As they leave the comfort and security of their homes, they place themselves, symbolically, in God's hands.

The building of the Sukkah is a fun family affair where the children will have fun decorating it and where they will gather for the eating of the feast. Some even choose to sleep there under the elements, looking up at the heavens through the gaps in their shelter’s roof. The Feast of Tabernacles was an annual reminder that God chose to ‘tabernacle among them,’ to protect and bless them wherever they wander.

There are specific rules about how this shelter is to be built, and what materials are allowed to be used, but what I find fascinating are the rituals that accompany this holiday, and how they all foreshadow Yeshua (Jesus) in their symbolism.

The first ritual is the drawing and pouring of the water, which can be referenced back to the origins of this practice found in Isaiah 12:3 which says “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation”. We know from many verses in the Bible, like John 7:37, that say that Jesus offers us living water, which we can interpret to mean the Holy Spirit.

The second ritual is to illuminate the shelter with the lighting of candles. This glorious blaze of fire is to remember the pillar of fire by day and smoke by night that accompanied their ancestors throughout their wanderings in the wilderness.  Again, we know that in John 8:12, Jesus refers to Himself as the Light of the world.

The third ritual is to eat an olive-sized piece of bread or mezonot (grain-based food) inside the Sukkah on the first two nights.  In John 6:35 Jesus says He is the ‘Bread of Life’; therefore, eating it is just like taking communion. (1 Corinthians 11:24)

The fourth ritual is the waving of branches, typically 4 different species of trees, although, in Israel, many choose 7 to represent all the species of the harvest, with each having a special meaning. Each tree type symbolizes the different personalities of everyone, and how we are all joined together to complement each other’s weaknesses and strengths. A blessing is recited over them and waved in 6 directions, north, south, east, west, up, and down, to emphasize the omnipresence of God.  On the last day of Sukkot, they make a procession around their Synagogue or room seven times whilst waving the branches of Palm leaves, known as the lulav, where they cry out with shouts of praise and beat the bundle on the ground.  This reminds me of how Jesus was welcomed on Palm Sunday with the waving of Palm leaves. Circling around for seven times, also reminds us of the story in Joshua 6, where the Lord gave the people victory over the city of Jericho.  

It seems a fitting end to Sukkot to celebrate with drinking of wine, the fruit of the vine, for in John 15, we are told that Jesus is the true vine, who we are to abide in.

Just like the Sukkah is a temporary dwelling, it should remind us that the Holy Spirit now dwells in us permanently. The Tabernacle where the Holy Priest visited on our behalf, is no longer necessary.  The curtain separating us from God’s Holy presence was torn when Jesus died on the Cross, where we now can enjoy direct and permanent access to dwell with Him.

Below are some Bible verses that refer to this joyous, week-long holiday. As you consider this festival, may it remind you of Jesus and the significance of His message through the traditions of Sukkot.

Genesis 33:17 - And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore, the name of the place is called Succoth.

Leviticus 23:39-40 - On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you are gathering in your produce of the earth, you shall celebrate a celebration of God for seven days... And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree (etrog), palm branches, the branch of a thick tree (myrtle, hadas), and brook-willows, and you shall rejoice before God for seven days.

Deuteronomy 16:13-16 - Celebrate the Festival of Sukkot for seven days, when you gather in from the grain and the vine. And you shall rejoice on your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and widow who live in your gates... and you shall be only joyful.

Seeking Comfort from God instead of Food

I don’t know about you, but the lockdown during this Corona virus pandemic has thrown many people like myself further into emotional or comfort eating.  I recently looked at why we are not running to God for our comfort and what is making us turn to food instead. Let’s begin by looking at the definition of comfort -

• noun - a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. 
• verb - the easing or alleviation of a person's feelings of grief or distress; to give solace or to soothe.

The verb comfort comes from the Latin word comfortare, which means to “strengthen greatly.” As a noun, comfort is anything that provides satisfaction or a relaxed and easy feeling.

We escape to food for many reasons, but sometimes it can become our hiding place, where we eat our feelings or emotions that we’d prefer not to deal with, or find hard to express.  Unfortunately, as delicious as some food can be, it can never fully satisfy us or fill that void we are insatiably trying to fill.   

If your diet is full of sugar, carbs, salt or additives, these are addictive, in which case you need to ask yourself if it is time to fast these or do a detox so you can break their stronghold.  Anything you are craving, is for a reason.

God gave us His Holy Spirit, who should be our built-in Comforter, but when we choose to turn to food instead, it blocks out His power and defeats us from gaining victory in this area. 

Some of the things we can try to stop us turning to food is the following:-

1. Ask God for help – not for the willpower to stop but to give you a true hate of this sin of gluttony
2. Fast from thinking about yourself and focus on God and others – doing this will stop our thoughts turning to food
3. Turn to your Holy Spirit and read your Bible, until you feel satisfied and comforted
4. Recognize your triggers and addictions – I need a…
5. Be accountable to one another in your successes and failures.  When you share your triumphs and struggles you will no longer be hiding the problem, and by exposing it, you can find healing.
6. Be mindful when you eat, and savor each bite slowly, focusing and celebrating God as the provider of it.
7. Stop eating on autopilot and start listening to your body when it says it is full 
8. Eat for fuel and nourishment and not for entertainment or pleasure.

Food fixations or desires is a sign that food has become your master and that you are a slave to food.  Yes, even food can become an idol, especially when we are worshiping it instead of God!

When we are going through a tough time, we need to assess our thoughts and problems and name our emotions.  When we speak them out aloud, we will find we won’t be tempted to run to food for comfort.  Instead, eat a ‘daily bread’ verse and ask God to fill you with the kind of comfort that you are needing.

We need to have a good relationship with food and stop obsessing about it. Even healthy eating to the extreme is bad for you. When we seek to find our satisfaction in God and not in food, we will realize that only God can give us the kind of comfort that sustains us and brings us joy.

Food is not our enemy.  It is a good and delicious gift from God, that was designed to be eaten and enjoyed in fellowship with others, to give us the energy and nourishment our bodies need.  It is not God’s design for us to be bingeing on our own, with junk food or snacks that adds no value.

Satan is our enemy who has used food to distort our relationship with God and uses food to hijack our intimacy with our Comforter. The lies that the devil uses are: -

• I need to finish what’s on the plate
• I deserve this if you’ve had a bad day (reward yourself with a treat)
• A little bit more won’t matter
• I’ll do better tomorrow – my diet starts on Monday

A small bite of something delicious can become an act of worship – you don’t need to eat the whole cake or the whole packet of crisps.

We need to start craving God and developing an appetite and a hunger to consume His Word as our Daily Bread.  When we hide God’s Word in our heart, (memorize it) He will use it as a sword of truth when we need it.

Here are some bible verses to help use as weapons when we are fighting this battle: -

Psalms 34:8 – Taste what is good. Change your delight focus from the food to the source of the food. 

Psalm 23:4 – staff & rod comforts us – for protection and rescue 

Isaiah 55:2 – nothing can satisfy us except God 

Isaiah 66:13 – God comfort’s us like a mother 

Psalm 119:50/76 – God’s love and promises comfort us 

Proverbs 13:25 - a righteous man eats until his heart (soul) is content or eats enough to satisfy his appetite.  

Matthew 5:4 – the mourning will be comforted 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit - therefore honour God with it 

1 Corinthians 10:13 – you will not be tempted beyond what you can bear. Endure it, until it passes 

1 Corinthians 10:31 - eat or drink for the glory of God 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – the purpose of comfort is for it to be a cycle – God comforts and encourages you, so you can comfort and encourage others. (Give a dose of hope) 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 – God gives us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comforts our hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

My prayer is if you too are struggling in this area, that this information will be of benefit to you in helping you to seek and receive your comfort from God, instead of from food.

As I continue daily, to resist the temptation to turn to food and by acknowledging my emotions and what kind of comfort I am needing, I am finding it easier to turn to God instead, and I hope you will too. Each opportunity is a choice we must make to either turn to food for our comfort, or to God, our true and only real source of Comfort.

The Passover Blood of the Cross

The Church I belong to (Life Changer’s – Century City) has been studying the Exodus story in their series ‘Move Again’, and I’ve come to see how the final plague of the Passover night was a foreshadow of Jesus on the Cross at the time we celebrate as Easter.

The Passover is a beautiful illustration of the gospel. It’s a story of redemption and deliverance from bondage. It’s a story of faith in the grace of God and it’s a story of victory. The tenth plague was God’s wrath on sin, idolatry, pride, false religion, cruelty, and so much more. The Angel of death would sweep through the land of Egypt and lay waste in one of the most heart-wrenching ways of killing every first-born. But, as always, God made a way.

God instructed Moses for the people to put the blood of a sacrificed, innocent lamb upon their doorposts, which would rescue and save them from death. When the angel of death saw the blood covering the doorposts, he passed over them, sparing them from death. However, it was not the blood itself that protected them, but what the blood represented, as a sign of a covenant.

When you think of the action of those people who painted their doorposts with the blood from a basin, using the leaves from a branch of a hyssop tree, they were performing the sign of a cross. The blood from the top crossbeam would have dripped down the center, and painting the blood from the left -side post to the right-side post, would have completed the sign of the cross.

In the Old Testament, blood was used to seal covenants and to create an inseparable bond of relationship, a blood link between two parties. The sacrificing of an animal without blemish and the sprinkling of its blood was also used to consecrate, to purify and to atone for the sins of the people.

The night of the Passover gives us a picture of what Jesus did when He shed His innocent blood to save us from our sin and give us eternal life. It is Jesus’s blood that covers our sins, like it did on those doorposts, so that when God looks at those who believe and have placed their faith in Jesus, He sees His child because of our precious blood covering and passes over us, sparing us from the penalty of our sin and giving us eternal life.

Jesus hung on crossbeams and bled for all of us. His blood covers anyone who surrenders to put their faith in Him. We don’t have to be innocent or perfect, because Jesus was on our behalf. Those rescued from Egypt were imperfect people, and so are we and just like those who God rescued from Egypt, we have to follow Him out of slavery. God didn’t deliver Israel so they could stay put in bondage.

Jesus came to sacrifice His life to rescue and save ours. He was perfect, without sin, and through His sacrifice, He offers deliverance from the power of sin in our lives. Jesus was our Passover Lamb.

When we plead the blood of Jesus over our lives or over our situations, we are not doing a ‘Harry Potter’ like incantation of breaking a curse, but we are acknowledging and standing on the promises of the power of what His blood signifies, and celebrating our inheritance of what His blood has given us.

So as you partake of Communion this Easter, consider this verse:-

1 Corinthians 10: 16-18 “The cup of blessing that we bless—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s blood? The bread which we break—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s body? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body—for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?

 Wishing you and your family a blessed, holy and meaningful Easter!

Christmas Love

As we prepare our hearts for Christmas this year, I was reminded about how the colour red is so significant to this festive season. The red and white outfit of Santa or Father Christmas may be what comes to mind, but for me, red is also the colour of love and the blood of Jesus, the son of our Heavenly Father.

The popular verse of John 3:16 is not often referred to at Christmas time, yet when you think about it, it is the real reason for the season – that God loved us so much that He gave us His beloved Son, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but be gifted with eternal life. To put it plainly, Jesus is God’s gift of love to us, and even though many may argue that He was not actually born on the 25th December, it is a day set aside for us to remember His birth and what it means to us.

So as we start to sing Christmas Carols and begin to enjoy in the spirit of the festivities over the coming month, let us ponder this miracle gift that has restored us back to God and let us consider what gift we will give Him in return this year…

Wishing you all a meaningful and joyous Christmas season, full of God's hope and peace, found in the blessings of His ‘presents’ and His presence…

I leave you with this poem I wrote as a reminder of the true reason for the season… 

 

Christmas

Christmas is not just a happy holiday,
Or a time for festive greetings.
It’s a very special occasion indeed,
To enjoy time in family meetings.

Christmas is not about the presents,
Or when Christmas Carols are sung.
It’s a time to spend in Jesus’s presence,
And think what He’s birth has done.

Christmas is not about the feast,
Of flowing spirits and luxury food.
It’s a time to remember His birth,
And remain in a peace-filled mood.

Christmas is not about decorating a tree,
Or sending cards to all we know.
It’s about a birth that sets us free,
And for this, our joy should show.

Christmas is not a time for fuss or stress,
Rushing to find the perfect present.
We should think more of those we can bless,
And remain still in Jesus’s presence.

So set a time on Christmas morning,
To take time and thank God for Jesus.
For when Jesus is the reason for the season,
Love, hope and peace will fill your Christmas.

 https://poetrybysam.blogspot.com/2021/12/christmas.html

 

Feeding our Faith with Prayer

The difference between to pray and a prayer is that pray is a means of addressing God, but prayer is the two-way conversation that we have with Him.  In other words, to pray is a verb, but prayer is a noun, a sacred thing.

As Christians, we are called to pray and there are many reasons to do so, but sadly, we only seem to do it earnestly when in need.  Prayer should be our first response, not our emergency back-up when nothing else seems to work.

We should pray before the event, over the event and through the event, and not just after the event.  Although God knows our needs before we even have to ask them, He desires our interaction of being alone with Him. He wants us to commune with Him, to converse with Him, to vent with Him and to seek His presence earnestly and early.

There is something special and powerful when we make the choice and sacrifice to start our day early, alone and in a quiet place, to get into the presence of God in prayer. There is much rest, replenishment and wisdom to be found in this secret place, which sets up our attitude for the day correctly, to face whatever lays ahead.  

When we study Jesus’s example of prayer, we can clearly see the awesome benefits and miraculous results of time spent with His Father.  Unlike ourselves, it should not be a rushed quick request chat, but a lengthy, sometimes overnight time of seeking and listening.

Our prayers are a time of memorial and for remembrance – to remember the person and His faithfulness and to remind God of His promises towards us. It’s like a court case where we get to go before the Righteous Judge with our advocate Jesus and our counselor the Holy Spirit, and plead our case for His ruling, to make our requests and supplications known.

Many of us when faced with adversary, either isolate or talk to anyone who will listen, when instead our prayer time should be when we turn to God for His advice and opinion on the situation, and then wait to hear it, either for Him to speak to our hearts, or through His Word.  When we spend time in prayer, I like to imagine God lays His hands on us to bless us with the touch of His anointing, for there is nothing more powerful than having felt His touch after spending time in His presence.

When we develop a posture of prayer, either with our hands together, eyes closed, or on our knees or with our hands up in praise, it is like a tap that opens up to pour out the filling of the Holy Spirit into our lives, our minds and our hearts.

When we prayer regularly, constantly, consistently and persistently, it fuels our faith and grows our belief, so that every doubt, worry, fear or temptation is destroyed.  It is the power that gives us our Spiritual strength to face our stormy situations with a nevertheless, overcoming faith.

If you are facing a situation with no answers or a scary future, I challenge you today to get serious about prayer and see how God can transform the situation; if not the problem itself, then definitely ourselves to deal with it.  Our breakthrough will come when we stop asking God to remove the problem and start asking Him to help us to get through it.

Just like our muscles need exercise, and how we say Grace before we eat to bless the food to our bodies, we need to exercise our faith with prayer so that God can bless our day.

In conclusion, I leave you with this simple acrostic for prayer –

P = Praise God for who He is and for His faithfulness
R = Repent of your attitude, sin or lack of faith and unbelief, and ask for His forgiveness
A = Ask God for His help, for answers, for whatever you are needing
Y = Yield and submit to whatever is God’s will for your life and for your situation
E = Empty your mind of all your worries, concerns, doubts or what makes you confused
R = Rest in God’s presence and be replenished and restored