I did not know what to talk about in the Ladies Group. “Speak to them about Micah” “Oh Lord,” I said, “They won’t understand words from Micah” But I took my bible in hand, turned over the pages, and my mind went back to the … Continue reading Peace
Month: October 2018
Prudence
I held the peas given, for sometime and named them, the first, I called Prudence. Prudence is not a word that is used often nowadays and in some scripture versions it is translated as Wisdom.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to act prudently is to act with or showing care and thought for the future and its origin is the Latin “prudens” meaning foreseeing, aware (of) intelligent, skilled. The New Testament Greek translates as “sophia” the highest intellectual gift of comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God.
“All wisdom comes from the LORD
She is with Him for ever.
The sands of the sea, the drops of rain,
The days of eternity-who can count them?
The height of the sky, the breadth if the earth,
The depth of the abyss– who can explore them?
Wisdom was created before everything,
Prudent understanding subsists from remotest ages,
For whom has the root of wisdom ever been uncovered?
Her resourceful ways, who knows them?
One only is wise, terrible indeed,
Seated on His throne, the LORD.”
To me, the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians is to us a gift of highest intellectual insight into the ways and purposes of God, the version, (N.J.B) translates prudence as wisdom, where the NKJV translates it as prudence.
Paul writes,
“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Thus He chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before Him in love, marking us out for Himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, (and daughters) through Jesus Christ. Such was His purpose and good pleasure, to the praise and glory of His grace, His free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through His blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace which He has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of His purpose, according to His good pleasure which He determined beforehand in Christ, for Him to act upon when the times had run their course:”
The rest of the chapter, and letter unfold for us more of our Father’ s wonderful plan for our eternal destiny, together with gentle admonishments for the forming of the people God created us to be: I sat still, savouring these scriptures, really at a loss for words to express the inexpressible, my little green pea, I had named “prudence” but I was now looking at a pearl called “wisdom”
For me the passage from Ephesians speak of our gracious God acting with and showing care and thought for our future before creating anything at all, they show us His foresight and skilful working out of a plan to raise us to sit in high places in Christ Jesus and, one thing more, His abundant anointing of the Holy Spirit and gifts of spiritual insight for a man called Paul, who said of himself, that he was the worst of all men, and the chief of sinners!
Scripture References: Ecclesiasticus 1:1-8, Ephesians 1; 3-10 Both N.J.B.
Holy word, holy wisdom
He said, ‘Go’
I was invited to a friend’s home, to share good company and conversation with other friends of the Lord, from other churches, other traditions, other ways… we all had one thing in common, we all had many years of seeking to serve and please God. All of us, had started our journey with the Lord from different ‘feeder paths – yet here we were all in the Way and on the Way.
I woke next morning comfortable and quiet, the Holy Spirit nudged into my happy space with,
“Are you rich, my friend”
I smiled he was bringing to mind my friend’s home, compared to mine a palace. But there again, she had a husband and together they had a business of their own and I have been a single woman, I gave my Yes to His call as a young girl, still not old enough to vote – still ‘waiting for the key to the door’ as the older generations called it. Well the Lord gave me a most precious key to another door … won’t dwell on that now.
In the early light I was making out familiar shapes of my own humbler possessions;
“Yes, Lord, I am rich. Everything I need God has provided and will provide.” I answered happily.
Now the conversation at my friend’s home had been about the scarcity of young people in our churches, and where are tomorrow’s church leaders and elders, so the next words didn’t surprise me.
“Go,” the Lord says, and “Tell whoever has the heart to go, especially those who are young, to go, tell them don’t wait.
“Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses, with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or a staff, for the labourer deserves His keep.”
I smiled. Nothing in this world, compares to the riches of the Kingdom of God.
“Yes Lord, but we do need to take something with us, we need to be dressed for the Gospel. We need compassion, kindness a heart like yours, we need to take your teaching and word with us.”
*Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned, forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you
“All who know this, are ready. Go,” says the Lord, “tell the older ones, tell the younger ones… wait for nothing and no one Go!”
He showed me a full pod of peas, freshly picked, young, green, tender, and sweet.
“Hold them in your hand just a little while and consider them just a little while, and ask Me about those things you don’t understand.
I smile, so many, many years ago He called me His little pe… .
Please feel free to share your thoughts on the peas.
I used the New Jerusalem Bible for the scripture quotes:
Matthew 10:9
Luke 6: 36-38
New Beginnings and the 8th Day
This morning , my church received from the Pastor of a nearby Pentecostal Church, a brown envelope on opening it, I found the gift of one £5 note a packet of wildflower seeds and a printed card which tells me that the gift is a symbolic and prophetical sowing into the Ministry of our church.
The card also has the message that “Our God is the God of abundance, and that He can take the seed we give to Him in faith and He can bring about a great Harvest.”
If I could choose a time to visit the Holy Land it would be for the Feast of Tabernacles, just ended, however the Lord visits us where we are, and this year, it has pleased Him to bring to my remembrance that 7 x 7 Feasts of Tabernacles = 49 years have passed since I received the Holy Spirit, and they have been good years abounding in good, delightful things… they have been years of sunshine and of rain, sadness and joy, blessed years.
The 8th Day following on from the 7th Day of the Feast of Tabernacles celebrating the Final ingathering/harvest of the year, can be regarded as “New Beginnings” it is a time when the gift of rain is asked for the sowing of fresh seeds, so in faith I pray that God will bless the sowing of His Word with Holy Spirit Rain in this 50th year.
On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out:
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!
“Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!
As scripture says, “From his heart shall flow streams of living water”‘
He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7: 37-39 (N.J.B)
So here I stand at the beginning of a kind of Jubilee Year in my walk with the Lord and I yearn for it to be a fruitful year for Him. I have known Him and His love for me all my days but the preciousness of the Holy Spirit who can describe?
Who can count the seed in a pomegranate?
Jewish tradition says there are 613 representing the 613 commandments of the Torah. In my church a pomegranate appears in a stained glass window as a symbol of Christian faith and fruitfulness. Some think that a pomegranate may have been the mysterious apple eaten in the garden of Eden. Maybe if you have time you can look up all the biblical references, you will certainly be blessed if you do. I chose the pomegranate to illustrate this post because it reminds me of the sweetness of the Holy Word of God, the True Vine, who admonished us:
“Remain in me, as I in you
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself”
And He gently says, “Whoever remains in Me with Me in him, bears fruit in plenty: for cut off from me you can do nothing.”
May His blessing abide with us still.
Fresh Whispers 