Well, here we are… Today I would have been married 40 years; to a man I met on a blind date in 1983 and wasn’t even all that keen on! He was 19, I was 22 (2yr 10m between us), though I had led a pretty sheltered life and he was confident and went out drinking and clubbing a lot more than I ever did. I was practically still a hermit at 19! 😂

Apparently, he checked me out from a distance when my friend and I arrived at the pub, and decided he was in love! As for me, in the four months we dated until I “chucked him over” i.e. split up with him, I never told him I loved him – because it wasn’t true! I find it very hard to not be truthful, it’s not in my nature to lie, and it wouldn’t have been fair to give him false hope! I did kind of like him because he was the only bloke I’d ever dated who actually rang me when he said he would! And, in spite of his many other “failings”, more of which in a minute, that was a big plus point!

So, his failings… my friend, who set us up, said he was a bit like George Michael… Well, he was tall, but had dark hair not fair, though admittedly did have highlights, and an earring, but the similarity ended there! Good job really, as George turned out to be gay, so that would have scuppered our future marriage! John couldn’t sing either. At all! 😬

He was loyal and attentive, but extremely jealous and possessive! If I waved at someone across the road who I worked with, I’d get the third degree! In those days, I had an anti-gravity type hairstyle, using lots of gel and hairspray, and it drew attention… Random people would come up to me in the street and ask if they could touch my hair! It drove him mad!

Also, at the time, I was a vegetarian while he was a certified meat eater! 😂 He refused to eat jacket potatoes, lentils, leeks and sweetcorn, and also hated strawberries and cream. I cooked him a baked potato with cheese once and he just looked at it and asked where the steak was!

Anyhow, we split up, as his jealousy was stifling, and completely uncalled for as I wasn’t the type of person who would cheat on him at all! I briefly dated a couple of shallow and unsuitable blokes after that and slowly started to realise John’s good points by comparison…

Unfortunately, by this time he had got engaged to someone else (on the rebound!) and she forebade him to have any contact with me, though we only used to chat on the phone now and then. (No mobiles in those days!) I really thought that was it and I’d missed my chance, and it made me feel very sad and cross with myself!

A few months later he rang me to say that he’d caught his fiancée cheating on him, and the engagement was off, so we resumed a friendship and started going out in a group with some other friends. I tested him many times by chatting with people at the bar right in front of him and watching his reaction… He had clearly calmed down a lot and was very restrained! Then one day I inadvertently / accidentally said I loved him! He leapt on that! “What did you just say?! Did you mean it?!” Oops! Well, yes, I guess I must have, or I wouldn’t have said it! Within a week or two we got engaged, and then married the following year.

We had lots of opposition from his mum and dad, since I’d broken his heart when we split up before. His mum gave the marriage a year! I’m not saying we never argued as we certainly did during the first few years. I discovered he had a gambling problem, and was hiding stuff from me so I didn’t find out… except I did! He obviously didn’t know I was Miss Marple in disguise!! 😂 So, it all came out in the open eventually and I think he was relieved.

He went to Gamblers Anonymous and I went to the family support group, GamAnon. It was there we started out on the journey that led to the Lord… the 12 steps and the serenity prayer. By this time, we had a network marketing business and our upline were mostly Christians. We made friends for life during that time and one of them invited us to church. I had wanted to go for a long time, but John was very reticent and kept steering the conversation away, presumably because he thought you had to be “good” in order to go! However, he really respected this man and so we went. That was the Sunday before Christmas 1993.

We became Christians in March 1994 and John’s own testimony was that he was completely delivered from any desire to gamble and, despite having felt huge guilt all the time when he was gambling, he KNEW he was forgiven and it was behind him because he was indeed a new creation!

I’ve always said, John and I would never have met through a dating agency. We literally had almost nothing in common, apart from our loyalty, and later our faith. And yet, God KNEW the people we would become. He literally made a way for us to meet and eventually love each other and marry. He blessed us with children, though even that wasn’t all plain sailing! But God had a plan!!!

Was it God’s plan that John would die young and I would be left a widow? My answer would be that God certainly knew it would happen. I don’t believe John was struck down or being punished for anything. I think we live in a fallen world, and John was blessed to have a quick, painless ending, out of the many possible scenarios that could have unfolded that night! As for me, I can’t give a straightforward answer. It’s tough. I MISS my soul mate desperately, I struggle with overwhelming emotions and anxiety at times. But what does God say? Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you! As the bible exhorts us…

Hebrews 4:16 ESV
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

James 4:7-8a ESV
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

At the end of the day though, I’m alive and still here! God can still use me if I make myself available to him! Sometimes our suffering allows us to reach people who would never have listened to the gospel unless they first related to us and saw that we’re just like them. Cut us, and we bleed! BUT WE STILL HAVE HOPE!! And, especially these days, everyone needs hope!

I will maintain to my dying day (or the rapture!) that God is good! I know he’s always been FOR me and had a plan for me my whole life, even though I didn’t know him at first. I miss John. I miss him very much, but his absence from this realm doesn’t change who God is. He is faithful. He is unchanging. He still has both of us in his care. The love of my life is not dead, he’s just not here! And one day I’ll see him again. 40 years is a long time to have been married, but when compared to eternity, it’s just the most miniscule of blips. A small signature on the fabric of time that says, love matters. It reflects the heart of our infinite God. ❤️

Ok, brace yourself for another exciting tale of yesteryear..!!

When we lived in our previous house, around 1990 though not sure of the exact date, it was a bank holiday Monday evening, and John and I were watching a James Bond film on TV. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang! I looked at John, he looked at me and Josh, our Rottweiler/GSD cross rescue dog looked at both of us! As one man, we all rushed to the front door to find a large Ford Granada car on our small front lawn, embedded into the wall of the house! There was steam coming out from beneath the buckled bonnet! (That’s the hood in the US!) The shocked woman in the driver’s seat was a neighbour from three doors along our row of houses!

It turned out that the car was an automatic and, as she was parking on the road facing our house, she got her flip-flop caught between the pedals. (Never drive in flip-flops!!) Since she had not yet put the car in “park”, she ended up mounting the kerb and driving at speed straight into the front of our house as she tried to dislodge her footwear! She had already taken her seat belt off and actually cracked the windscreen with her head as she came to a sudden halt!! It was a bit of a disaster all round. I’m glad to report that she was not badly injured, though very shocked, as were we!

Fortunately, our wheelie bins were in front of the house and one of them was in the direct line of fire and acted as a crumple zone, or I think the damage could have been a lot worse! (Sadly, the bin did not survive…!)

Several people helped to get the car off our short front garden and back onto the road, which was just as well as we had a fractured gas pipe, which had to be fixed under spotlights at close to midnight, so we had a big hole under our window with an orange barrier round it too!

Next day, the insurance assessor came and said we needed acrow props as he wasn’t sure if the wall was structurally stable as the outer skin of bricks was so damaged. It took several weeks for everything to be arranged and fixed. We had to have a new front door fitted, because although it wasn’t involved in the crash, the impact to the adjoining wall had caused the frame to be out of alignment, so it was very hard to open and close. The builder who came to do the brickwork was called Bob, which caused some hilarity! (Bob the Builder – look it up if you haven’t heard of him!)

One lunchtime at work, I just had a really strong urge to come home, though it would be a rush as it was a 20+ minute drive each way and I only had an hour. When I got home, Bob was busy working and Josh was tied to the banister on a long rope and lying on the grass watching him.

I said, “Oh, what’s he doing out here?” Bob said, “I’m saying nothing!” and grimaced…

When I went into the house, Josh followed me, with his tail between his legs… The living room floor was covered in chunks of pink foam and scatter cushions! In his stressed state, he’d chewed out the underside of every seat cushion on our quite new leather suite!! He literally looked so forlorn and apologetic that it was hard to be mad with him, but I realised why Bob had taken him outside! Looking back, though I wasn’t a Christian then, that “go home” feeling was very like when the Holy Spirit speaks to you!

Anyway, regarding this incident, John managed to make light of it all as we stood in the garden surveying the damage, the oil and tyre marks on the grass, the hole in the ground… He looked at the mangled bin and said in a pretend sad voice, “I had one of those, but the wheel fell off..” which really made us laugh! 😂 You can look the phrase up for the meaning if you haven’t heard it before!

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Now let’s fast forward to the recent present and I’ll tell you why all this came to mind after so many years!

About two weeks ago, I was driving my 19 year old car to collect my friend and take her shopping, as usual, but I could hear a knocking noise coming from the front of the car and feel it through the steering wheel. I drove about a mile, stopped, rang my son who was at home, and he said come back, I’ll have a quick look. So I carefully drove home. He looked underneath, couldn’t see anything hanging off, came with me for a slow drive up and down our road, and decided it wasn’t anything serious. “You’ll be fine Mum!” Yeah, that really filled me with confidence!!

So, I set off again, literally got about 100 yards to the end of the road, and the feeling of the Holy Spirit yelling “Stop!!!!!” was so strong that I pulled over, rang to say I was coming back, and then carefully reversed up the road and back onto the drive! I had to cancel the shopping trip at no notice, which made me feel bad. Then I felt helpless as I was now car-less till I could get it looked at. It’s virtually impossible to get to anywhere useful from my house by public transport! Thankfully, a kind friend ferried me to and from church for music practice and Sunday services, and I just didn’t go anywhere else!

The car was already booked in for its annual service and MOT this Monday, and I’d notified the garage about the noise, which we agreed could be something expensive, though hopefully not terminal!

Gary came and collected it and carefully drove to the garage. I rang to make sure he had got back in one piece and he said there was definitely a knocking, and that he could feel it in the steering wheel too! He said the mechanic would do the MOT inspection and he’d let me know…

Well, shockingly, it transpired that my front, offside wheel was really loose and actually had a nut missing! It must have been working loose for a while as there was uneven wear on the front tyres! Goodness knows how it came about, I mean the roads are pretty rough and full of potholes round here, but could they have caused this..?!

So, praise the Lord!!!! If I’d ignored it and kept driving, who knows what could have happened! I usually go a couple of junctions on the motorway each week. I could have had a nasty accident, been injured or worse, caused an accident affecting other people. At the very least I could have written off a car that was easily repairable! And, if you read my post on how I got this car, you’ll know that Daddy God provided it for me after I lost the previous one! Read it here…

https://the-finished-work.com/2021/09/10/let-go-and-let-god-part-2/


Anyway, my old car and I have now been happily reunited, I’m mobile again which gives me joy and freedom, and all praise to Father God for protecting me!

So, I’m delighted to tell you that I had one of those, but the wheel DID NOT fall off..!!

Thank you, thank you Lord! ❤️

I may have mentioned before that my dad was a huge science fiction fan! He was an avid reader and had a whole bookcase full of dog-eared science fiction paperbacks, which he read and re-read regularly. Our house seemed to be full of books!

We had three bookcases upstairs and two large ones downstairs, filled with a wide variety of novels and non-fiction, large hard-backed books and small paperbacks. He even had a few antique leather-bound volumes, going back several centuries! One of these bookcases had three full shelves of Readers Digest condensed volumes, popular at the time, each of which had three or four stories in!

I grew up knowing that reading was a good thing, and was to be done at every opportunity, even when I got told off for reading under my bed covers with a torch when I was supposed to be asleep!

We had a 12″ black and white TV (those were the days!) and I remember seeing the original versions of films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, Fahrenheit 451, The Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and many more over the years. There were quite a few science fiction / supernatural mystery type series on TV  too in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Tales of the Unexpected, The Twilight Zone, The Expert, Dr Who (which I found terrifying when I was very young! Those Daleks..!!) And then of course, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Logan’s Run, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Planet of the Apes, The Invisible Man… to name just a few! We seemed to spend our lives looking far into the future and trying to imagine what it would be like!

Happy memories! And it was the many conversations about life, the universe and everything, that I had with my really quite intellectual dad (though he was a humble shop worker his whole adult life) while I was growing up, which trained my mind to enquire, search, be curious. I think it was this that made me seek God, since I could clearly see this world did not come about by chance, and I was pretty sure after my sci-fi saturated childhood, that aliens were simply the product of imaginative minds and not who created the human race!!

Anyhow, if you’re NOT a science fiction fan, you may not have heard of Ray Bradbury, or his 1950 short story called, “There will come soft rains” which is what caused me to write this post. It is rather different to my usual style of scribbling, I know, but when I realised what the date was, it just had to be done! 

So, it was a story about an automated (smart) house in California, which carries on doing all the things it has to do, reminding the family it’s time to get up, preparing breakfast, cleaning etc., but the people have all been wiped out in a nuclear strike some time before. As time goes on the house starts to fail and is then eventually destroyed by fire, as its robots and automated systems try in vain to overcome it.

I heard this story narrated on the radio one evening, as my dad listened. I’m not sure how old I was, perhaps 12 or 13, but the one thing that has stuck in my mind over many decades, is the house waking up and saying, “Today is August the 4th 2026!” When I was a child, that date was so far in the future it was inconceivable, yet here we are!

Today is indeed August 4th 2026 and, praise God, I’m still here to tell you about it!

[Caution advised!]

In the UK, the “Assisted Suicide Bill” has been a much debated and sharply dividing subject. It is suggested that it should only be made available to people with a terminal diagnosis of six months or less. Some think it shows mercy to people who are suffering, others think it is the start of a very slippery slope. Where does it stop? When does “mercy” stop being merciful and become murder?

To begin with, I want to make it clear, I’m no expert, nor am I medically trained. I wish to state my opinions and reservations, and really just think out loud. Please feel free to comment if you would like to, but keep it polite and in a genuine spirit of debate. 

Several years ago, I saw a YouTube video about assisted suicide, from Canada I think. The home-made film showed an elderly lady with her son. She was laid on the sofa and a medically trained woman administered syringe after syringe of a thick looking fluid into her veins. Almost immediately, the patient’s face took on a look of what I can only describe as frozen alarm, which I found very distressing! I couldn’t tell if she was in pain, afraid or regretting her choice – assuming that it was solely her choice. Who could be sure? I found the whole thing deeply unsettling. I’m not really sure why I watched it. Maybe morbid curiosity – it just appeared in my feed. I was hoping for a look of peace and serenity as this lady passed away, but I didn’t see it…

I know for myself, I could never do this, or assist another person to end their life in this way. The woman administering the fatal dose appeared not to have any expression of kindness or compassion. It very much seemed like “just another day at the office”…

I do believe in excellent palliative and end of life care, and in hospices which, in the UK, are not funded by the NHS but usually have to fundraise to keep going. In this day and age, there is surely no reason for dying people to suffer. Yet suffer they still do… My own mother-in-law died a painful and distressing death in hospital from sepsis, caused by a hospital acquired infection during the later covid lockdowns, following a hip replacement. She was in hospital for three months, and we discovered that the staff agreed four days before she died that there was nothing more they could do and that she was, in fact, dying and should have all treatments removed. 

They didn’t inform us, her family, for two more days and by the time we were called in she was in and out of consciousness, so I’m not even sure if she knew we were there. Her body was very swollen as her kidneys had shut down, yet they STILL had her on a drip, pushing fluids and IV antibiotics! Why?!! She didn’t get any proper end of life care until a few hours before she finally died. She deserved better. I know that she is with the Lord now and that is the ONLY thing that has comforted me. 

But even bad care causing suffering wasn’t a good enough reason for her to have been euthenased!

I am of the opinion that, if it was me, I would want to be kept comfortable and as pain free as possible, but I would not choose to end my life on Earth sooner, as it’s not up to me! My life is in the Lord’s hands. He can heal me or he can welcome me home, but he is sovereign and, in my opinion, that is how it should be. 

In the UK, the “Assisted Suicide Bill” was defeated but now another MP is trying to revive it so it can be forced through without a further reading in the House of Lords, and therefore become law. I thought the whole point of debates and votes in government is so that matters are settled democratically. Not that one, or a handful of people can say, “Well, I’m not happy with that outcome so we’re going to override procedures. “

I’ve heard some stories, from Canada in particular, where people who are homeless, depressed or disabled have been offered M.A.I.D. (medical assistance in dying) as a solution to their problems, because it seems they are no longer considered worth helping, spending money on or encouraging. It’s the thin end of the wedge. How soon will anyone who’s not healthy enough, not productive enough, (or perhaps not compliant enough…?) be pushed down that same road. Dystopian? Yep, it is that, but maybe not that far from being a future truth.

My personal belief is that “euthanasia” of humans, let’s call it what it is, does not honour the life that God has breathed into each one of us, and thus disrespects the Lord Himself. Jesus died for each and every person on the earth, though sadly very many people will never accept him as Saviour. Nonetheless, he IS Lord!

The book of Revelation talks about the Mark of the beast…

Revelation 13:15-17 NIV
The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

Revelation 20:4 NIV
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

I don’t know how far away the tribulation is, though there are many indications in the news every day, that end times bible prophecy is being fulfilled. My thinking is, that if people get used to lives being “painlessly” ended, “for their own good” and then for the good of society, it won’t be such a stretch when people are permanently removed from society because they are not conforming to the rules, and so causing trouble for those who are compliant… The pride that caused Satan to fall will fill them and cause them to agree that it’s all for the best that these trouble makers are removed.

The divide between light and darkness seems to be getting ever greater. Things that my generation could never have imagined are now coming to pass. I genuinely hope that Jesus will return soon, though my prayer, as always, is that all those whom I know, who don’t yet know HIM, will have a revelation of who Jesus is and come into a relationship with him, receiving the free gift of salvation through faith in his shed blood and atoning sacrifice alone!

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For information and accuracy, this is taken from an email I received this morning from https://righttolife.org.uk/

“The Bill published yesterday by Lauren Edwards is near-identical to Kim Leadbeater’s deeply flawed and unsafe Bill from the previous parliamentary session.

It retains dozens of serious flaws identified by Royal Colleges, professional bodies, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and disability, mental health and domestic abuse charities.

The Bill was published on the day MPs left Westminster for the summer recess, leaving them very little parliamentary time to examine it before its Second Reading on Friday 11 September.

By bringing back the Bill in near-identical form, its supporters are also keeping open the highly controversial possibility of using the Parliament Acts to force it into law if the House of Lords does not pass it again.”

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These pictures are screenshots from a video I took on my phone last night during a long and eventful storm! Temperatures have been a bit on the warmer side here in the UK this week and it’s quite humid.

The lightning started around 1.30am, bright flashes, like a dodgy florescent light that flickers on and off randomly. Then came the rain, and the odd distant rumble. The rain became torrential, the lightning came in bursts and the thunder got closer and louder.

Me being me, I was sat in a chair facing the big French doors, recording it, looking up the live lightning map, checking the absolutely pitiful Met Office weather forecast, which said 40% chance of rain and not a hint of thunder or lightning! Yet this was the biggest and longest lasting storm we’ve had in a long time.

So, those two pictures…

The first one was incredibly bright though the lightning grounded itself a lot further away than it would appear. The second one, just a split second after, was almost the echo of the first, the remnant of that powerful bolt! As I’ve looked at them this morning, I see God at work and hear him speaking through it…

The first picture shows the suddeness with which events can overtake us. Things we never expected happen, quite literally like a bolt from the blue. Where they strike they cause damage, devastation, sometimes ongoing destruction, like a fire that rages through a house, a forest… What remains is so damaged that it will take a long time to be renewed and restored…

And then, the second picture, which looks like threads of gold. It is what remains after the powerful, violent strike. It reminds me of the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi, translated as “golden joinery”. Broken pottery is repaired using precious metal, often gold, and lacquer. It not only restores the broken item to usefulness, but adds beauty and value.

I believe this is what the Lord does for us when something has devastated our lives. He gently puts us back together, using precious gold, to make us stronger and more enduring, more beautiful (in spiritual terms) than we were before, and even more valuable than before because the Master Craftsman was our restorer and he added that gold, something of himself, during the restoration process.

How beautiful an image! How loving a God! What kindness does our Lord bestow on us! Every pot can be repaired. You are never too broken… ❤️

I’ve been reminded of a poem I have loved for many years. I don’t know who the author was, but all credit to them…

My life is but a weaving, between my Lord and me.
I cannot see the colours, he worketh steadily.
Oft times he weaveth sorrow and I, in foolish pride,
Forget he sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the weaver’s skillful hands
As the THREADS OF GOLD AND SILVER in the pattern he has planned.

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2 Corinthians 4:7-9 NIV
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

Isaiah 61:3 NKJV
To console those who mourn (in Zion), To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

God is merciful, and his will is that none should perish, but we only have today to choose. Every day is a another “today”, as soon as the second hand passes midnight. It’s another opportunity to choose life. Life in abundance, life with joy and peace for eternity.

We cannot know what might happen tomorrow. We may not even have a tomorrow…! Just look at the news! Every day there are reports of people whose lives ended suddenly. I’m sure that when they woke up that morning, they had no idea that they would not see the day out…

Spiritual procrastination is from the very pit of darkness, approved by the enemy and the deadliest weapon he wealds! We all think we have plenty of time. But it’s a lie!

“So, TODAY, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”

If you don’t yet know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, you have a decision to make. Don’t put it off! Time is short. Your time might be VERY short!

Proverbs 27:1 ESV
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Well, here we are, nearly half way through the year, and this month will contain the longest day, so by the end of June we’ll be on the slippery slope back towards Christmas again! It doesn’t bear thinking about! And it’s not just older people who are saying that time is going faster now, as even the younger generation are noticing. I genuinely think it is!

Of course, none of this is a surprise to God. He holds time in his hands. He knows the end from the beginning, because he is outside of time! How can our tiny brains comprehend such a thing?! We are always controlled by time, but it is relative, depending on what we are doing!

When I was a new Christian, I heard it explained like this… Imagine there is a broom handle, suspended in mid air. An ant walks along it. It can only go in one direction and has no power to travel back and forth along the broom.

God, however, can walk all the way round the broom handle! He can see it in its entirety, from beginning to end; where the ant has been and where it’s going. It’s all a matter of perspective. We are at a fixed point in time. He is not!

So, TRUST him to know what came before and what lies ahead. He is able to move obstacles, and direct us along our path. He acts on our prayers and loves to see our faith! He really does see and know everything. Nothing is hidden from him. We can rely on him completely.

Sometimes, as we travel along our “time line”, we encounter difficulties and he will let us negotiate them, because they will make us stronger, wiser or bring us into a closer relationship with him. He sees the outcome of every choice, every option. Whatever happens, he is with us. He is omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere, all at once. He is with each one of us at all times, but also in our past and our future! Satan and his minions can only be in one place at a time, just like us… so not so powerful as they’d like us to believe! And, unlike God, they are not omniscient (all knowing) or omnipotent (all powerful). He has no rival, no equal, just as the song says.

Imagine all of that… then make it personal. See him as Father… Your provider, protector, the one who encourages you, who picks you up when you fall, who is never shocked or surprised, who comforts you when you’re sad or angry, who guides you through every second of time! He NEVER leaves your side. If you don’t know God as Father, turn to him today and let him father you with all the love and care that you could ever want or need.

Can you see it now? He is ALWAYS with you!

Matthew 28:20b NKJV
“…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The clock ticks…

And, in between ticks, there is silence.

Like breathing. Breathe in, breathe out… then a fraction of a moment of nothingness at the end of the exhale…

It might seem as though there are times when nothing is happening, when God is silent; busy helping others maybe, but not you. And that silence is so much more deafening than the “tick” that it’s all you can hear!

But He is still there in the silence… still with you, still working all things together for your good…

If you have a spouse, or family or friends, do you talk non-stop whenever you’re with them?!! I hope not! That’s a real relationship killer! Sometimes you can just sit in companionable silence, and those times of just being together but not needing to say anything can make your relationship deeper and stronger over time! Sometimes, no one needs to speak!

When we think God is doing nothing, He’s actually doing everything! He IS everything! In the silence, it’s us who are doing nothing! We think we’re waiting for God to speak, but He’s waiting for us to act!

What is it He’s waiting for us to do?

Micah 6:8 NKJV
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Justly:
In a morally correct way; fairly.

Mercy:
Kindness that makes you forgive someone, usually someone you have authority over.

Humbly:
In a way that shows that you do not think you are important.

(Definitions courtesy of the Cambridge Dictionary)

How does that make you feel? A bit indignant maybe? We can sometimes feel a bit self-righteous when we’re “waiting on God”…!

Now apply that same passage to Jesus’ life on Earth… Is He asking you to do anything that He has not already done?

Was He fair in how He dealt with people?

Did He show kindness that made Him forgive?

Did He act in a way that showed that He did not think He was important?

Philippians 4:13 NKJV
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

YOU can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Remember that..!!

If you know who Winnie the Pooh is, you may also know the song, “Little black rain cloud”.

“I’m just a little black rain cloud
Hovering under the honey tree.
I’m only a little black rain cloud
Pay no attention to little me!
Oh, everyone knows that a rain cloud
Never eats honey, no, not a nip!
I’m just floating around over the ground
Wondering where I will drip..”

Winnie the Pooh is in disguise covered in mud, hanging onto a balloon floating in the air, trying to steal honey from the bees’ nest up high in a tree without alarming them. He’s singing about how harmless he is, how he definitely doesn’t want their honey and is no threat to them whatsoever. It occurred to me that these are the kind of tactics that Satan uses against us. He is a deceiver; a liar, and the father of lies!

Sorry if this seems to have taken a bit of a deep and dark turn all of a sudden, but please bear with me for a moment… excuse the pun!

The bees eventually realise that Pooh is after their honey and attack him, but not before he’s taken a big scoop and swallowed it, along with several bees! Casualties of war, you might say!

What does that honey represent to us?  Something precious, something we care very deeply about. It doesn’t even have to be something material. What about our personal faith, our relationships, our health, our church community, our peace…? I’m sure you can think of many areas in your life that have come under attack at one time or another…

Are we being deceived and lulled into a false sense of security by his song? It is a catchy little ditty, isn’t it?! Do we think, oh it’s just a little rain cloud, it’ll pass, it can’t do any harm? Do we take any notice at all when the enemy creeps up behind us and whispers, “Nothing to see here… As you were. Everything is fine!”??

Remember, you are the bee (metaphorically speaking) but YOUR sting is found in the Word of God, in praise and worship, in prayer… You are not powerless when an attack comes your way! Sting the one who comes to steal!

The bees’ black and yellow stripes serve as a warning to predators. You, dear Saints, are clothed in fine linen, robes of righteousness! Satan knows full well who you are in Christ! And he would do well to keep his distance! Don’t let him take ANYTHING from you!

1 Peter 5:8-9 NKJV
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. [9] Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

James 4:7 NKJV
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Sorry! It’s been over a year since part 1 ended with me contracting chicken pox soon after we moved in! I had never had it as a child and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy as an adult… I felt so ill! I was off work for three weeks, partly as I was infectious early on, but also because I was too unwell to drive to work, do my busy marketing job and drive home again. I think I just slept a lot of the time! And, to top it all, I was left with two scars on my face as a memento – whoopee!

Aside from that though, we got the house rewired, and had the front garden gravelled so we could park. As we’re right in the corner we don’t really have a kerb as such, so getting the cars off the road was important as it’s quite narrow. For some reason, the previous owner liked old carpet, so he’d carpeted over most of the front garden (yes, really!) and used some old logs to hold it down. I presume he thought it would suppress weeds, but all that happened was the mud squelched through from underneath and the weeds seeded on top! We also had old carpet over the end of the back garden and a couple of extra rolls up in the loft! Needless to say, it all ended up at the tip!

Renovating was a labour of love as we uncovered old features and restored them, and I learned a lot about the history of the road and the house from my elderly neighbour, who had moved into the adjoining semi as a newly wed in 1929! What a shame that the old cast iron kitchen range was gone, but we still had two small cast iron fireplaces upstairs, which we restored as a feature. I had inherited some old dark wooden furniture from my aunt, which went perfectly in this cottage-style home. We were very happy and two years later started our family, which I’ve written about elsewhere!

We loved our spacious garden and the greenery, the peace and amazing assortment of visiting birds! We’re near to a large area of woodland and open fields so had all kinds of avian visitors and I got quite good at identifying them. What a difference from where we had lived previously. It was great having room for the boys to play in the years to come too. Not a lot of room indoors, but outside we had a climbing frame with a swing and slide, room for ball games and for small boys driving recklessly in pedal cars! Really, our family was so blessed! We never had big expensive holidays, we hadn’t even had a honeymoon! We didn’t have luxury cars or much spare money, but we had what we needed, that money really can’t buy. God is good!

Anyway,  I wanted to tell you something that I only discovered very recently…

If you read part 1, which I’ll attach here, you remember the passage from Jeremiah 32, in which Jeremiah buys a field…? I don’t know what made me dig deeper, but that field was in Anathoth. It was in the territory of Benjamin. Anathoth was a sanctuary city and is listed in several places as meaning “answers” or “answers to prayer”. There are various other connections to this name, but that one really caught my eye. Living here, in this house, in this place, was SUCH an answer to prayer! We grew spiritually, and as a family, and have been involved in impactful ministries over many years. We’ve made friends for life and, now I’m on my own, it’s the one place I feel safe and secure and “at home”. It really was a sanctuary and the Lord’s provision for the long term future (the deeds are secured to last a long time, Jer 32:14) and I’m so grateful.

For years, I had a little card with the following verse propped up on a shelf…

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.

I think it’s in with my old bible notes and prayer journals now, but I need to look it out. God is good. So very good, always. He knows our story from beginning to end. Of course we will have struggles, hard times, sadness, adversity – we live in a fallen world – but with the Lord we will always have HOPE, summed up as “Holding On, Praying Expectantly”. As children of God we should hold onto him and be expectant as to how he will provide and care for us, in response to our prayers and requests. He always listens, and always acts, though sometimes not in the ways we expect!

Praise the Lord, for he is good and his love endures forever….

The little house that God bought, part 1…