59. PAUL’S THORN AND YOURS 2 Cor 12;7.

Bible scholars disagree as to what exactly Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Some think it may have been poor eyesight, others a speech impediment, and still others a physical challenge. Why doesn’t The Bible tell us? Well, if the problem was poor eyesight, then a number of us could say that doesn’t help us because we have 20/20 vision. If it was a speech impediment, those with the gift of comfort wouldn’t find comfort in his words. If it was a physical challenge, those with good health could think they were exempt. The reason The Bible doesn’t tell us may be this; No matter what your particular affliction or struggle may be, the same God who gave Paul victory, will give you and me victory as well. Have you got a person in your life you might describe as a ‘thorn in your flesh,’ (come on be honest)? What is the thorny situation you face day after day at work? You can have a thorny relationship with someone who needs extra grace, love and prayer, that’s why Peter writes, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of Our Lord Jesus.” (2 Peter 3;18) Each of our thorns is different, because God customises them to our need. Why? So that we will “Grow in grace, God is more interested in our character than in our comfort, so sometimes when we pray for lighter burdens, He gives us stronger backs. The songwriter said “He gives more grace when the burdens grow greater, He gives more strength when the labours increase, to added affliction He adds His mercy, To multiplied trials, His multiplies peace,” Although the Bible doesn’t tell us what Paul’s Thorn in the flesh was, Paul himself tells us why God permitted it “To keep me from becoming proud” (2 Corinthians 12:7), increased achievement and success can lead to increased pride and independence from God. Have you noticed that when life is going great, staying close to God is sometimes more difficult? We tend to think, God is so good to us, because we are so good to Him. This is something we must always be aware of and be careful we don’t go down the road of Presumptuous familiarity. We must always guard against this and keep God on His throne; where there is only room for one. God can use anything for our good and His Glory, In His wisdom and patience, He permits something we think is intended to hurt us, but He turns it around and uses it to help us. Here is what He does; He balances blessings with burdens. In (Psalm 68:19) the Psalmist says “Blessed be The Lord Who daily loads us with benefits” If God filled our hands only with blessings, eventually we would fall over on our faces: and if He continually loaded our backs with burdens, we would fall on our backsides. So He apportions blessings and burdens so that we can remain balanced. It’s easy to get out of balance. We get so absorbed with the joys of Heaven that we neglect our calling to be salt and light here on earth. We get so involved in the work of the Lord that we fail to spend time with the Lord of the work. We sometimes get so involved with church that we rob our families of the love and attention they need. So God brings us back in to balance by permitting the thorn in our life. Paul writes; “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, So that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Paul didn’t get the answer he was looking for until he stopped asking and started listening. Sometimes we are so busy telling God what He ought to do for us, that we can’t hear God telling us what He wants to do for us. If you have a stubborn problem in your life, maybe it’s time to stop talking and start listening. God taught Paul lessons at the best time he could hear them – during difficulties. So the bad news about tough times turned out to be the good news after all – That we learn more about God in the valley than we do on the mountaintop. C. S. Lewis describes how God uses pain to communicate with us; “God whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain.” Before God spoke, all Paul wanted was his problem to be removed. After God spoke he realised that in his problem he had found something better and greater – supernatural strength reserved for those tough times when we realise God’s presence is greater than our problems and His purpose is greater than our pain. That’s how we can see God’s almighty power and strength revealed through our very own weaknesses. Thank you for reading about Paul’s “Thorn in his flesh” and how he handled it. We all have at least one, and some more than others, Don’t try to fight it, talk to Our God and listen, and in your weaknesses He will speak to you saying “In your weakness I will be your strength, In your darkness I will be your light and in your sorrow I will be your joy. May Almighty God bless us, Jesus stand with us and The Holy Spirit guide and protect us forever. Phaline.

58. TRUSTING GOD’S TIMING. (Galatians 4:4)

This verse tells us to trust God’s timing. Often not easy to do, but, if we are patient, it always turns out perfectly “When the right time came God sent His Son.” God doesn’t consult us to make sure His plans line-up with our timetable. No! He sets the schedule; sometimes we have to run to keep up, and at other times we have to slow down to keep in step with Him. Mary planned to marry Joseph and then have a child, but God had a different plan. The child had to be without inherited sin, so He needed a perfect father; therefore, The Holy Spirit was called on to do the job. Humanly speaking, the timing couldn’t have been worse, Mary became pregnant before she was married, And Joseph wasn’t the Father. Besides being ostracised, the Law said she could have been stoned to death. How did she respond? Amazingly! Then she replied, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord, Let it be done to me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38.God has a set plan and He is always working towards it. The trouble is, we are only working with limited information, so we become impatient and upset when He doesn’t answer our prayers when we think He should, OR in the way we think He should. It is said that George Muller a great evangelist and founder of the Ashley Down Orphanage in Bristol England. Once waited on the dock for a special chair to be delivered, he had a bad back and needed the chair for his ocean voyage. When departure time came and it still hadn’t arrived, his friend offered to buy him one. But Muller said, “Either God will provide, or He will give me the grace to do without.” Then just like a Hollywood ending, the chair arrived right on time! Trust God He knows what He’s doing. In Isaiah 46:11 We read “What I have said, that will I bring about.” God has a plan for our lives that requires certain things to happen at a particular time. And He sees the big picture, whereas you and I who are working with limited information, must learn to trust Him – even when we don’t see how things will come together. God can take the loss of a spouse, a child, a job or a property and make it work out for our good. The trouble is while He is doing all this, we are feeling uncomfortable and sometimes downright miserable. Seven hundred and eighty two years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Micah said that He would be born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2.) but Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth. So how did God solve the problem? The Roman emperor Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken. That meant everyone had to return to their own ancestral towns to register for the census. Now, because Joseph was a descendent of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, which was David’s ancient home. Joseph took Mary with him and they went from the village of Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem quite a distance especially for Mary who was well on in her pregnancy. And in fact the time for her delivery was imminent and she gave berth to her firstborn son (Luke 2:3-7) Are you worried about your future? “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep travelling along His path and in due season He will honour you with every blessing”(Psalm 37:34) Isn’t it interesting how, as we get older we become more patient, even though we have less time left!!! Why is that I wonder? Perhaps it’s our perspective! Our problems haven”t changed that much but our perspective has. Things that once upset us don’t any more, because we’ve lived long enough to know ‘His grace is sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). Once you realise that it’s no big deal – and most things aren’t – you can say “Been there, done that!” instead of fretting and complaining, which doesn’t work anyway and steals our joy, We’ve learned to sing and believe, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” We have learned to understand that God’s timing is the only way that works. Are you still a bit anxious and concerned about what the future holds for you? Don’t be, relax, the God who arranged for His Son to be born in to the right family, at the right time, in the right place is looking out for you today. Let Him see that you trust Him. Nothing is impossible for God, He has the answer to our every situation. Have you ever thought, if God told us all His plans for us,what would we do? We would give Him what we think was a better, faster and easier way to do it!! But, He sees the whole picture, we don’t. Like another Joseph in the book of Genesis, I’m sure, you can look back to times in your life when you thought you’d never come through a particular situation, or the current mess you happened to be in, in fact, you thought you’d never survive, and be able to say, “You meant it for evil against me: but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50;20) Yes perspective produces patience: “We can rejoice… When we run into problems and trials, for we know they are good for us they teach us to be patient and patience develops strength of character… and helps us to trust God more each time we use it, until finally our Hope and Faith are strong and steady and we are able to hold our own no matter what happens, we will know all is well because we have learned to accept and understand God’s love for us, “Because He has given us The Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love” (Romans 5:3-5) We are always on God’s mind He never stops thinking of us even for a second. He loves us too much to let anything separate us from Him and His love for us. What a glorious place to be, always on God’s mind! When I first really understood about God’s Timing, my life, my attitude and my perspective changed from almost fatalistic to joyous expectation, I hope you too have that great experience. Thank you for reading my thoughts on this subject, I pray God’s Grace, Peace and blessings on us all. Phaline.

57. THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Psalm 23.

Having lived on a “Hobby Farm” in a farming area for over thirty years, I have come to the conclusion that sheep are the dumbest creatures under Heaven. They haven’t a clue about anything, even their senses don’t seem to work the way they ought to. That’s why farmers have sheep-dogs to lead, push, prod and hustle them along. Yet these silly animals which have the cutest loveable little lambs supply us with meat, wool and in some cases with milk and cheese. Though easily led and given to occasionally wandering down the wrong track they are reasonably compliant most of the time, but one has to be prepared for the odd rebel that will brake all the rules and cause untold damage. . In Old Testament times farmers didn’t have sheep-dogs, they cared for their much smaller flocks themselves, often giving the job to one of their children (David was one such boy) or, if they could afford it they would employ a shepherd. Now, there were “Good shepherds and bad shepherds. The good ones would take it in shifts to stay awake all night and keep the wild animals away from the flock, while the bad ones were just there for the money and often slept on the job. So now you know why Jesus called Himself the “Good Shepherd.” He is always awake, The Old Testament tells us God doesn’t sleep. But in saying that, Jesus was referring to us as sheep. Now if you go back and read the first paragraph again, You will see why!!! Don’t let this worry you, Just follow me with Psalm 23 and see how much the Lord loves you, paying attention to the personal pronouns which I have put in capital letters to show how personal a relationship Jesus wants to have with us. ...Psalm 23. 1.” The Lord is MY Shepherd I shall not want;” Understand exactly what this means,-- Because The Lord is your Shepherd, All your needs will be met and taken care of. 2. “He makes ME lie down in green pastures He leads ME beside quiet waters” The Good shepherd will take His sheep to the most tranquil of places, Why? 3 reasons, a. To refresh our Souls. b. So that we will learn to recognise the sound of His voice and know it can be trusted and c. to guide us along the right path.. “In pastures green He Leads ME” Not just anywhere and for no reason, but in healthy safe places, where we can be fed with the Word of God and drink the living waters of eternal life. because it’s His name that is at stake. The idea of “The quiet waters by” is peaceful tranquillity where man can be still and commune in peace with his God.. 3. “MY Soul He doth restore again” to show us the depth of His love as He gives to each one of us a time of personal Reflection, Repentance and Restoration for our mind Soul and Body. “And ME to walk doth make” and He will enable you once again, to walk in His righteousness with confidence. Surrounded by His redemptive everlasting Love 4. “E’en though I walk through deaths dark vale, yet will I fear no ills,” We all have times of heartache, pain, illness and sorrow. But, we must learn to trust our God in these times, because He knows what is best for us, even though sometimes it will hurt, we need to remember, gain only comes after pain, (read Job). For,;--“Your rod and your staff will comfort ME” Even though I can’t always see or understand what you are doing, I am guided by Your rod and your staff (Your Word) I will trust you. 5. “You prepare a table before ME in the presence of MY enemies” The Lord will show the world what we have done to make His name known, He will put on show our faith, our loyalty and our unashamed profession of who we are in Jesus Christ. He will anoint us with the oil of His Salvation and have us marked and sealed as His alone. 1. 6. Surely Your Goodness and mercy will follow ME all the days of MY life” When we live daily with honest open lives before God, we can live with the expectation of His Goodness and Mercy each day. “And in God’s house forever more MY dwelling place shall be.” And that expectation will translate with us into Eternity when we leave this world. What more can we ask. Thank you for reading my take on Psalm 23. I believe it is very much a psalm for the living rather than the dead. I hope you experience the enjoyment of living it. God Bless us all. Phaline. -------------------------------