Tag: christianity

Hope and a Future

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Last week I wrote about the words we write upon our heart. Today I thought I would talk about that a little more and give you one of the first passages I learned by heart. Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.“

The words we speak matter. Studies have proven that gratitude rewires the brain and increases feelings of happiness and satisfaction. But those studies don’t tell you that the reason for this is because we were made to be in a relationship with God. All of us are born with an inherent need for something greater than ourselves. C.S. Lewis characterizes it best when he says

“Hunger would be absurd if there was no such thing as food. Thirst would be absurd if there was no such thing as water. Loneliness would be absurd if there was no possibility in satisfying that yearning in a relationship with another human being. The desire to find God would be absurd if He did not exist.”

It has been my experience that one of the first things to happen when you seek a relationship with God is you start to become grateful. Grateful for the people in your life who love you, grateful for your job, your house, the simple joy of a sunrise or a green light. And the more you practice saying “thank you” for the small gifts in your life, the more you see things to be thankful for. I can’t tell you how many times my exasperated teenage son would say “Mom you don’t need to thank God for every single thing!” after I said “Thank you, Jesus” for a break in traffic. I would argue that you do.

The verse above from Jeremiah helps to put things in perspective. How many times have you cried out “Why are you doing this to me, God?” Or thought “If God was real he wouldn’t let this bad thing happen to me.” But the verse in Jeremiah gives us hope. God doesn’t want bad things to happen. He loves each and every one of us, fully and completely. The Bible is full of verses tell us not to fear, not to worry, and to trust in Him. This past year we went through perhaps the most difficult thing a parent can go through – the loss our our first born. But never for a second, as we walked through that valley of darkness, did I think that God did not love us or care for us. I would have been easy to focus on what we lost, instead of the gifts we were given even in the heart-beaking time. The gift of holding him my arms and singing him into God’s care. The gift of saying good-bye. The gift of knowing how many lives he touched deeply. And even in the months after Hayden’s passing God continues to give me gifts, to remind me that while Hayden is no longer physically present in this world, he is always with God and I will see him again one day. And so even in the storm I could not help but praise God and thank Him for his unfailing love and the gifts he gave us.

The biggest gift God wants to give you is one so many people turn their backs on – His unconditional love. This week my challenge for you is to memorize the above verse and hold it in your heart as the promise of love it is meant to be. That God has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God Bless,

Meredith

The Words On Your Heart

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“Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three; Write scripture on your heart for when you need it.” Leanna Crawford – Still Waters.

Last weekend I took a trip with a couple of friends to a Breath Work retreat. I have filled my life with frenetic activity over the last few months because the quiet moments are when I feel Hayden’s loss the most. I also knew that I had this retreat coming and I earmarked it as a “taking time for me” and “reconnect with God” time. It was a very powerful weekend for me in several ways. During our breath work meditation, God filled me with affirmation – that the way in which I connect with him, the way in which I feel him in my heart is valid. It was an incredibly overwhelming experience because in that moment I also affirmed for myself that there truly was nothing that could separate me from my God. I lost the most precious thing it is possible for a mother to lose less than five months ago – my child. But, in that meditation, I realized that the trials of life could not separate me from the love of God. Not just that He wouldn’t leave me, but that I wouldn’t leave him. That He was mine and I was His. And at the end, Hayden showed up… to remind me that he is not gone, he’s just not here, and he will be walking beside me, until I join him in Heaven. What a gift.

Throughout the weekend I was reminded of how important the things we put into our bodies, our hearts, our minds, our souls are. I always say that I only listen to Christian music, but the power of that goes beyond just making me feel good. Many of those lyrics are Biblical. Often times they are verses taken directly from the Bible. And why is that important? Because the things you expose yourself to are written on your heart. In my deepest sorrow; all those times I had read or heard or sung God’s word came back to me; to reminded me that I was not alone. When I am scared, or anxious or tired, the first thought in my head is God. God is truly the cornerstone upon which my life has now been built. I have written and song him into every cell of my body.

But what I also realized last weekend, in my conversations with the facilitators, is how many religious barriers have been put up to keep people away from God, to control their relationship. So, if you feel your soul crying out for something, if you feel sad, or anxious or overwhelmed in this world right now, let me set you free. Let go of all of the constraints that have defined what you think you need to do to have a relationship with God. You don’t have to go to church, you don’t have to read the Bible, you just need to start looking for God. Maybe on your drive to work you listen to a Christian radio station. I personally love K-love. Maybe you down load a Bible App onto your phone that gives you a verse a day or watch a Christian vlogger. Maybe you go to church for the first time in years. Maybe you just think about God as a possibility. What I want you to know is that God doesn’t have rules for you to come to him. He just wants you – as you are – perfectly imperfect. And I can tell you from first hand experience, there is no endorphin rush greater than feeling the love God has for you wash over you.

No one can make you believe. No one can change your heart. No one but God. “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, ask and the door shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7

I’m putting the link to Leanna Crawford’s song Still Water here. Maybe this is the first step for you. Maybe you put it on repeat.

God Bless,

Meredith

Darkness

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Even living out in the county, it’s not very often that we have nights that are truly dark.  Our horizons are always lit by the surrounding towns.  But, as the days get progressively shorter in the march toward the winter solstice, and the clouds of winter hang low and thick we had several nights this week where the darkness felt dense and heavy. 

I am not a girl who lives for the night. I love being up in the early morning, seeing the sun rise and the world wake up.  So, this week, as the darkness settled around us in a palpable way, I could feel myself reacting to it.  I couldn’t see the horses at their feeder from the fence the darkness was so thick and black.  The light from the barn couldn’t reach beyond the doorway, and the air was thick and heavy with the fog that was settling in. As humans we rely so much on our visual sense and certainly, for me, it was an uncomfortable, even stressful feeling to be so cut off from the world around me.  Normally I love night feed; it’s quiet and peaceful.  But on this night, I definitely breathed a sigh of relief walking into the lights of the house, with the fireplace warm and waiting.  It felt so good to come out of the heaviness of the darkness, back into the light.

This feeling got me thinking about the final verse from the carols and lessons concert we went to this past Sunday. It is from my absolute favourite book and it is probably one of my favourites because of how clearly it defines who and what Jesus was and is. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.  John 1:1-5

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”  As we draw nearer to the day on which we celebrate the birth of Jesus, on one of the darkest nights of the year, I hold this verse to my heart.  Jesus is the light that the darkness can not overcome, no matter how oppressive, or heavy that darkness we are walking through may be.  The relief that our souls experience when we draw closer to his light and love is as real as the relief I felt walking into the house that evening.  For some people this year, Christmas won’t be a time of joyful celebration. They are alone, experiencing their first holiday without a loved one… darkness is hanging over them in, wrapping itself around them.  But I know, just as he has done for me those times in my life when I have been lost in the dark, Jesus will always be life.  The life that is the light of all mankind.  I pray that, this holiday season, he is light and life for you.

God bless

Meredith

Believe the truth of your heart.

Recently I’ve had some faith based disagreements with people I love and care about. Most specifically they have centred around the idea that God is too big to care if you make a green light, or get a primo parking spot at the mall. Their opinion was yes, he is too big to care about the minutia of your life, mine is exactly the opposite.

Proverbs 3:5-6 resonates the most for me with respect to this. It says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” This verse doesn’t say in some of your ways acknowledge him, or only acknowledge him about the big stuff, it says in ALL your ways. It also says he will make straight your paths. There’s no qualification here. It doesn’t say only certain paths or only the big stuff. If, on a particular day, making straight my path, so that I know I’m doing what God wants, means I get a great spot at the mall, or a green light on the way to pick up my son from school, then so be it. I absolutely believe he has done that for me before and he will do it again. He makes it so obvious for us when we are doing his will. Making our paths so straight at times it feels like they are paved with big flashing lights saying this way forward.

There will always be people in your life who want to tell you who God is and who he isn’t. They want to frame or even limit your experience based upon their own. Don’t let them. Believe the truth that is in your heart, believe the truth that God has shared with you. Trust in the Lord with ALL of your heart. The people I love didn’t shake my faith or dampen my belief, instead they made me feel sad for them; sad that they haven’t yet experienced the love of God the Father. Do not let the world put God up on an unreachable shelf. There is a reason the Lord’s prayer starts with the words “Our Father”, because that is the relationship he wants with us more than anything. I guarantee you that God is with you, walking through your valleys and helping you climb your mountain tops. Mathew 7:7-8 “7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Seek and ye shall find, ask and you shall receive.”

God tells us over and over again the depth and intimacy of the relationship he wants with each one of us. Don’t lean on your own understanding, but instead sit back and allow an infinite God to love you like only a good Father can.

God bless,

Meredith

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

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As 2023 comes to an end today’s Bible reading ended up feeling more like a blog post and something we could all take with us into the new year, so I’ve included it here as well. If you haven’t been reading the book of John with us, this is a great introductory chapter and if you have, I hope as we move through these next few chapters it will be easy for you to see why this is one of my favourite books of the Bible.

John 14

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

I think at this point, the disciples genuinely believe that he is going to some other land.  Even the ones closest to him, who had witnessed all of his miracles couldn’t conceptualize the truth of who and what Jesus really was.

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

I love verse 7.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  We have so much of Jesus’ teachings to look through and the one word I think even non-Christians would use to describe Jesus is love.  So if we really know Jesus is love, then our heavenly Father is love divine; not judgement, not condemnation, but love.  Yes, absolutely we should try to be our best selves, to try to live aware of our sinful natures – envy, pride, gluttony, covetousness, asking God always to give us the fruits of the spirit and not of the flesh.  (See Galatians 5:22-26) but in the end, in everything you do remember that GOD IS LOVE.

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

I have a fullness in my heart when I read verses 13 and 14.  Jesus promises to be there for us, to answer our prayers – there is only one catch – so that the Father may be glorified.  I wrote a blog post last month about God answering prayer – that I believe that he does with every fibre of my being, and that he has faithfully answered my prayers.  Sometimes our prayers aren’t always answered in the way in which we want, (we prayed for our lost kitty to come home – ultimately we did find him and he is home, buried under one of our trees.  Maybe not the answer we hoped for, but we were able to have the closure of giving him a burial, one last pet and the peace of not having to always wonder, to know he wasn’t suffering.)  Jesus promises to answer our prayers, but we must trust him to give us the answer we need, not the one we want.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

READ THAT AGAIN!!!! Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid – bring all things to God, to Jesus and trust that he will care for you.  “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:27. 

I was listening to my favourite radio station this morning K-Love and one of the DJ’s said this.  Worry asks “what if”, faith says “even if”.   Jeremiah 29:11 is my absolutely favorite verse in the Bible and one I have committed to my heart.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Cling to that phrase in all your life and live in freedom.  Know that even if you make a bad decision, God can turn all things for your good.   God is so good.

28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

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In today’s Bible reading of John Chapter 6 we read what I think are some of the most profound words in the Bible, spoken by Jesus himself

We made the decision several years ago to send our youngest son to a private Christian school. He was struggling in the public system and we desperately hoped that the smaller class sizes and more opportunities for individual attention would help him be successful and it absolutely has, I wouldn’t change that decision for the world. But one of the things we had to do in order to get him into that school was go through an interview process. The idea of the interview was to confirm that we shared the moral values and ideal of the school community. Fair enough, they aren’t looking for boat rockers in a small, private school. But where the interview process when wrong was when one of the interviewers told Dave that, in his questioning of his faith, he wasn’t a true Christian.

I’m sure she felt well-intentioned, but her words and judgement about a personal journey were perhaps the most un-Christian I have ever heard. I also know that we have all come across those types of Christians in our lives. The ones that make us cringe at the thought of this religion. The ones that force their opinion upon us and try to “convert” us to their beliefs through bullying and fear. The ones that are completely misguided in believing that they are stacking up points in heaven by the number of converts they can wrack up on earth. Yuck!

Let’s look at those words I was referring to earlier on – the most profound words spoken by Jesus himself. John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” There you have it, an absolution of responsibility. It isn’t your job to make someone a Christian – that job belongs to God and God alone. Our role is share God’s love, to pray for people to come to know God, but it is God himself who has to place that desire in their heart. Maybe we are all born with that desire placed within us. That, I don’t know. It’s one of God’s mysteries. What I do know is that forcing someone to believe in something because of pressure or fear, simply to check a box in your own life isn’t really helping anyone. 

I have a list of people in my life for whom I pray daily. I pray for them to come to know God and his love and kindness. I try to be open about my faith and my relationship with God without being pushy. I want people to see this amazing thing I have, and want it for themselves, but ultimately only God can give them that desire. Jesus reiterates this again at the end of John 6:65  He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

This is why we are called to be God’s light in the world, to draw those, in whom God has planted a seed, to us. Be the light and love of God in the darkness of this world.

God bless,

Meredith