Let's have our Father's eyes!

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak at a church about what the bible has to say about family and somehow relate that to my experience of fostering children.

Firstly I felt to point out that there is nothing new under the sun! From the very beginning when sin entered the world, family has been in a mess. A brother killed a brother!! Think about that!
There must have been some resentment, jealousy and strong feeling there!

The ancient book is a helpful place to look at family as it follows the story of one family in particular. By the time we get to the third generation and Jacob's family we find some huge unresolved issues.
I've met a lot of families while being a foster carer but I have yet to meet a family as messed up and complicated as Jacobs.
Jacob marries 2 sisters because he is tricked into marrying the not so good looking one first. Both sisters are set against each other from the outset with good cause for jealousy and resentment. Sister 1 (the not so good looking one), manages to have children but sister 2 has difficulty having children even though she desperately wants them.
Sister 2  (the good looking one) is the one who Jacob REALLY loves, so sister 1 has cause to have feelings of inadequacy and rejection causing her to be deeply jealous. She starts naming her sons to reflect the process and journey she's on.
It's a long story in which both sisters end up arranging for their personal maids and 'home help' to sleep with Jacob so that they continue to 'have' children.  Children are used in a point scoring way for the sisters to get oneupmanship over each other. Can you imagine being one of those children? No wonder by the time the 11th child is born, the family is full of unspoken and complex feelings, a steaming pot of jealousy and unresolved anger. We know this because we read that the 11th child was also the one favoured by Jacob. The next generation of children were growing up in an atmosphere of jealousy and competitiveness. All this resulted in them trying to get rid of brother number 11 for good.
It's a fascinating story in the ancient book - worth reading because the story continues and we see that God never gives up on this family.

All this brings me to the second point - that no matter how messy - 'Mercy triumphs over judgement.'
There is hope for all families in the earth.  God loves us and wants the very best for us. God is good and merciful and full of kindness. He never gave up on this family, He has loved them over the years and still has purposes for them. As we become part of God's family through being adopted as sons through Jesus having made a way - so we are forgiven and changed into His likeness and our own families can benefit.
Transformation of our families can only come when we allow God's mercy and love to triumph over judgement. Seeing the best in everyone because we are made in God's image. There is always something of God's image in us no matter how defiled or tarnished that image may get.

We have fostered many children from different families over the years. Our prayer has always been that the image of God and His original design would be released in them and through them. Often times there have been curses placed over their lives through spoken words. Our generational lines carry both curses and blessings and as we have prayed for babies, toddlers, children and teenagers, our prayer has been that God would release them from curses and that generational blessings would flow to them.
We have experienced the joy of being able to speak life giving words over young wounded hearts and on many occasions have seen restoration and healing come.

Whether our own families are a mess and need to be released into blessings or whether we are involved in caring for children and youth with wounded hearts and defilement in their generational lines, there is a message of HOPE.

My third and final point was to encourage people to be life giving with their words. As part of God's family we know that He is a Father in heaven whose heart is that none should perish. As we walk in Him let us have our Father's eyes, for everyone we meet. As we ask the Holy Spirit to help us truly love and forgive as our Father in heaven truly loves and forgives us, so we have great cause to JUMP for JOY!

With a Hop, Skip and a JUMP!

So we've hopped into the ancient book and heard about creation and seen that it was GOOD and got messed up. We've skipped into the second part of the ancient book which gives us the good news that God sent Jesus into the world to make a way that the mess could get fixed and we're now about to jump for joy at the unfolding plan that includes you and me!

There's plenty of reasons to jump for joy because Jesus really made a way that we could partner with him to continue working in the mess of the world to bring about God's heavenly Kingdom plan. Jesus told his friends that they were to wait for the Holy Spirit.  Things were never the same after Jesus rose up from  the dead. We now live in a world where, with the help of God's Holy Spirit in us, we can have great adventures as we learn to walk and work with God's Spirit and be obedient to His supernatural leadings.

The rest of these blogs will be telling up to date stories of how God has been working in our lives to help change the mess, causing people to jump for JOY that our amazing, loving God wants to partner with us to help people get free of MESS and enjoy living in His Kingdom of love.

Praying that God's Kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven........

With a skip!

The great news in the ancient book is that God made a way that people could return to knowing the goodness and love of God, the way He originally intended.

The only way He could do this was by coming to earth HIMSELF in the form of a man. This meant that  he could show mankind His love and make a way for man to be as He originally created him to be.
There are many stories in the ancient book which lead up to  God coming to earth in the form of man. Supernatural stories of people who trusted in God and were friends with God.
God so loved the world that He came in bodily form as Jesus.

The fact that a man named Jesus lived on earth and did many amazing miracles has been shown to be true through historical accounts of the time. This is not a fairy story! The ancient book is full of stories of how God through Jesus showed His love and kindness towards humanity. Jesus showed us what God's 'world', His Kingdom is like. It might surprise you......

The only way the mess of the world could get sorted, was through Jesus showing the better way, winning over mistrust, death and destruction.  Jesus' acts of love, humility and obedience to his Father in heaven showed us the true way to a world where there can be healing and forgiveness.
It was a hard way and it cost him everything. Jesus - son of God, died a painful death, he was perfect but took on our messiness and imperfectness. He gave up his life because he loved us.

He lived a supernatural life - to show us that we could
He died a supernatural death -  to show us that we could

The most amazing thing happened. Although Jesus was well and truly dead. He had been buried in a tomb with a large stone rolled over the doorway to close it off, the ancient book tells us that he rose from the dead.

 One minute version of what happened. 

Jesus showed that even death can be overcome when we trust in God and His love. The ancient book tells us that all we have to do is say sorry for the mess. People call this 'sin'. Anything that has fallen short of God's best for us is sin or mess. Believing God sent his son Jesus and saying sorry for the mess through a simple prayer is all it takes to be free from mess. Trusting that through Jesus we can become new creations, 'born' again into God's Kingdom leads us into a whole new world......

Are you ready to JUMP into God's Kingdom?

With a hop

Hop, skip and jump

Life is very simple really! There is an ancient book that I have found acts as a guide to life, infinity and the universe. I want to take you through this book with a hop, skip and a jump!
Are you ready?
High five! 

Let's hop in at the very beginning. The world was created by God. He spoke and it came into being!
Land, sky, trees, plants, sea, birds, fish, animals, trees, plants, and man.
What's your most favourite thing about the world we live in?
Hop around the room and name everything you can think of that you think is good and interesting about our world. 

God enjoyed man and His creation. It was GOOD! There was no badness in it. Because God created the world, He knew what was needed to keep the world a place of life and love. God knew that there needed to be absolute trust and love between Him and man. God told the man that he should not eat the fruit of one tree. The fruit from every other tree was available to eat but man needed to trust God that the fruit of this tree shouldn't eaten.

Something VERY sad happened. The man and woman began to doubt God and were tempted to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. DISASTER struck!
From that moment on the world began to become messed up:-(
Now - thousands of years later the world has gradually gotten worse and worse. Today we live in a VERY messy world where bad things happen. Our world today is not like God's original creation.

God never intended there should be disease or sickness. God never intended there should be murder or hate. God never intended there should be poverty or wars where children are left homeless and orphaned.
Think of something sad that has happened to you or to someone you know. 
Realise that God never intended for there to be sadness!

BUT GOD......had a plan to fix the mess!

Let's skip on through the ancient book and find out what God's plan was.....