worthless as a half-baked cake!

What a strange thing to say "Worthless as a half-baked cake" - and yet that is how God sees us if we do not give him everything we have.

Cooking is not one of my strong points.  Especially cooking cakes leaves me in total bewilderment.

How could you ever add all those odd ingredients together, none even resembling the other, mix it all around until it looks like a disgusting mess, throw it into a pan - sometimes with paper of all things on the bottom put it in a red hot oven  and leave it there for an X amount of time.

It never ceases to amaze me that out of the oven comes this cake - it miraculous!! - Well it is to me anyway.

God says in Hosea chapter 7:8 that the people of Israel mingled with foreigners, obviously destroying their close relationship with Him and in so doing became as "worthless as a half baked cake".

A half baked cake would be useless - it would still resemble the gooy mess in the pan that went into the oven in the first place.

What does your life resemble? - You know we can put on an appearance of superiority- of holiness - we can go off to church resembling a Christian - we can talk the talk and walk the walk - we can act like christian, we can talk like a christian - we can look like a christian - but if God hasn't got full control of our lives - we are as 'worthless as a half-baked cake'.

As a "Christian' we can be a true saint in public - doing all the right things - going to all the right places - being seen by people as doing the right thing.

But the saint in public is usually a Devil in private - Spurgeon once said of a Christian like that, that "They deal in flour by day and soot in night".

In James 1:8 it says that a "double minded man" is unstable in all that he does."

Double minded! - pretending in one world living in another - They divide their loyalty between God and other things - they are inconsistant, unstable and unsettled.

They have one foot in Christianity and one foot in the world - a half baked cake and pretty worthless to God.

They are uncertain about God and I'm pretty sure uncertain about life wavering between the two worlds - partly believing in God and partly disbelieving - they lack certainty in their lives and certainly have no decided purpose.

Both their spiritual life and secular life must be chaotic to say the least.

How are we shaping up with all things considered?

Do you look to God for your resources through your faith in Him? or do you flounder along like a ship without a rudder trying to serve two masters.

In Psalm 12:2 David says "With flattering lips and a double heart they speak"

It is well time we settled our convictions! the longer we wait the more power we lose in our Christian life.

We can't please God and the world - Let's get a grip on our faith and our Christian life. True faith does not operate with open options - God's got everything or He has nothing.

Are you as 'worthless as a half baked cake'? - don't let any opposing desires rip you apart spiritually - Give it all to God today.

Misunderstood?

Ever been misunderstood?

There was once an old couple in their 90's sitting on their veranda gently rocking back and forth in their rocking chairs.

The old man looked at his wife and sighed - 'I'm so proud of her' he thought.

He gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said:- "I'm so proud of you"

"AY!" was the reply he received.

So he gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said a bit louder:- "I'm so proud of you"

"AY AY What did ya say?" was the reply.

So trying again, he gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said really loudly "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU."

She turned to him, glared and said "YES! AND I'M TIRED OF YOU TOO"

Being misunderstood can be really terrible - misunderstandings can be trivial and they can also be very serious indeed - Misunderstandings have caused job losses, people leaving churches, marriage breakups and even wars.

When we are misunderstood something inside of us craves to put it right and sometimes we can't and so the feeling of frustration can sometimes lead to depression and even suicide - so you see misunderstanding can have serious and sometimes deadly implications.

Trying to put misunderstandings right can also lead to disaster - people doing the misunderstanding sometimes don't want to hear what you have to say - some people approach the problem and try to explain why it all happened but unfortunately some people just don't want to hear what we have to say.

For example - a child is called out at school for bulling another - BUT the child in question was not the child doing the bullying - no matter how hard the child tries to explain - sometimes the teacher/principal doesn't want to know - and the child is punished for something they didn't do.

So how do we cope with being misunderstood?

Well, we certainly have to try to put it right - Jesus said in Matthew:-

"If another person sins against you (and this includes misunderstandings) go privately to them and point out the offence"

But sometimes no amount of talking and pleading can help in a situation like that.

Once we have tried to put it right - and the person/s invloved don't or won't listen to you, then really there is not much we can do - we have to trust our Lord and Saviour who knows our thoughts, minds and motives. We have to throw all out troubles on Him - after all he knows more of us than we do ourselves.

We need to tell Him openly and honestly - cast our burden of frustration onto Him and let Him handle it.

If anyone was misunderstood it was Jesus - he went through His life being misunderstood - even by those who claimed to know Him best.

So if anyone knows about misunderstandings it is Jesus - "The Author and Finisher of our Faith".

So if you have done everything you can then throw your cares onto his shoulders - And then simply trust Him to do the rest. He carried the burden of the cross and all of your sins on His shoulders - he understands your frustrations, your worries and your cares.

We should all learn from misunderstandings though.

Is there someone who feels like they have been misunderstood by us?

Maybe they have been misunderstood by people and they need a friend - may we are that friend.

Jesus loved us enough to go to Calvary - Do we love him enough to be a friend of the friendless, a listener to maybe someone who has no one to turn to.

Jesus wants us to come to Him with our burdens - he is the only one really who understands what we are going through.

Please - Come Back to Me!

Recently I watched a movie with my 2 year old Granddaughter Amelia - it was riveting (as you might expect) The movie...

Winnie the Pooh's Christmas! A very Merry Pooh Year

Poor old Winnie and the gang - you know Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, Eew-Aww, Kanga and Roo all gathered in Winnie's house for Christmas Eve.

All the talk was about Santa coming and giving out the presents - when suddenly they remembered that they hadn't asked for anything -so quickly they wrote down their dearest wants and sent old Winnie and Piglet to make sure it went to the 'North pole.'

On the way to the 'North Pole' the wild wind blew the dastardly letter away and the last we see of Winnie was crying piteously:-


"Come back to me" - I need to take you home."

I'm not sure what happened after that - I think I had a Poppa snooze and missed the end.

Funny little story and yet...

You know God is calling us - always to "Come back to me - I need to take you home."

Heaps of us need to turn back constantly- every day we need to renew our commitment to our Heavenly Father - He sent His son to die for us - a horrible excruciating death it was as well!

Jesus took my sins on his shoulders - burdened as he was already with the weight of the cross - He became even more burdened with the weight of the sin of the world.

Your sin and mine -  and He died there at Calvary for you and me - amazing at that sounds - He did it for love and through that love we could be reconciled to our Heavenly Father God.

Maybe you are like I was going up and down on a roller coaster - believing God and trusting Him sometimes - doubting Him sometimes - Just about ready to give up the walk of being a "Christian"

On a roller coaster experience with God?

Thinking it is all too hard - making excuses why you can't do this or that - Trying to masquerade the fact you are not as close to God as you were once.

God is not at all interested in masquerades - putting on a face doesn't win any brownie points with God either.

It says in proverbs that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" - that to me is an awesome proverb.

The fear of the Lord!! Wow - Yes God is someone to be feared as well as revered.

If we are truly aware of God's spirit in our lives - leading us through the tangled web of our day to day dealings then we have nothing to fear from our Heavenly Father BUT..

If we have turned our back on Him, excluding Him, not even being the least bit sorry for things done and said to others - not even thinking of Him or talking to Him - then we should be justly terrified to meet Him and rightly so - Our God is merciful and loving - He is also Just and Holy!

I thank the Lord for my beautiful Daughter In Law who out of love for me and concern  gave me a book - not a special book but a book by John Bevere called "Driven By Eternity" - In the book Bevere outlines the outcomes of not following our Gracious Father. Fortunately he also outlines the outcomes if we do.

It opened my eyes as to the severity of not following our Lord - the outcomes are terrible in the extreme.

On the flip side the amazing love of our Lord and His graciousness blots out all of our transgressions and He sees us as holy and unblemished through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus who took our sins and killed them on the cross.

Are you walking a long was off from the Lord you once knew and Loved like I was?

Jesus wants you to "Come back to Him" - it is never ever too late - no matter what you have done - no matter what you are feeling - no matter where you have been.

Don't leave it too late - Come back to God Now - All he wants to do is to take you home.

Arks, trials and God's amazing promises

Noah Built an ark!

Have you ever imagined what an amazing and mammoth job building an ark (of all things) would have been in those days - even today the thought of building an ark would be monstrous.

Over the years a few people have replicated the ark to the dimensions given by God in Genesis and it is one huge undertaking even with today's technology.

A modern day ark built in Holland - huge eh!

Given what poor old Noah had to work with the entire job must have been nothing short of a miracle.

The size of the thing alone is mind boggling.

Up until that promise of God that He was going to destroy the earth it had never rained! - The firmament above and below the earth kept the temperature even all year round the earth and all creatures were, if you like, automatically watered by a perfect system created by God so...

Building an ark?? one huge boat thing away from any water - the people must have thought Noah and his sons completely 'off the planet'.

It is interesting to note that God didn't promise Noah an easy time of it - He didn't make the ark for him!

Noah had to line it inside and out with pitch!! Just spare a thought.

Inside and out! PITCH Yuk you can imagine what he looked like after months and months even years lining that barge with pitch on both sides - what faith did Noah have!

God didn't do the lining for him - He didn't make the job easy - God didn't stop the jibes from neighbours and the community - Noah still had all the usual, and I imagine, great health difficulties - God didn't ease the pain.

You know we are a bit like Noah - God doesn't promise us an easy ride through life.

When my Soul Mate and great love of my life - my wife Sue was diagnosed with cancer last year- we were devastated - but you know through that journey and the on-going journey that we are both on  - we know for sure that God is ever with us.

God has promised that he will never leave us. In Hebrews he says "I will never Leave you or forsake you" - through our journey we have claimed that promise time and again and we both can glorify God for his provision for us.

No matter what happens on our journey through life - we know that we can take shelter in God and cling onto His promises - We will always look to Heaven - we won't expect God to soften the blow.

Poor old Noah didn't have an easy time of it both physically and emotionally - he faced his trials with courage, determination and endurance.

When the moment of truth comes for you what will you do?

Will you give up and throw in the towel - life all too hard?

or...

Will you like Noah look beyond you immediate circumstances to what lies ahead and take courage to endure regardless of the personal cost to you?

God bless you and may He strengthen you with His grace and truth.