Daily Picture

This morning I was reminded of how beautifully the sun sparkled like jewels on the sea yesterday. How much more precious are those moments than "treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal".(Matthew 6:19). Proverb 23:4 also counsels us "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone...

We do not really know what lies ahead for us, despite our plans on paper or electronic devices. However, God does have secure plans for you, to make "you prosper, not to harm you and to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). These words had been specifically addressed to the exiles from Jerusalem, who had been carried into Babylon. God instructed them to settle in their place of exile and "...

I saw a rugby goal post in front of a dream house however it might look to any of us. Whilst on earth Jesus promised His followers that He would be preparing a house for them and would take them there when the time comes to do so. I love the thought that that home with God is our ultimate destiny. In the meantime we can be in His assigned playing field of life for us to abide in our destiny where...

It has been said in what I think is an apt description, that everyone has a God shaped hole in them. This implies that only God can fill that particular space. I would suggest that many of us instinctively recognise that there is a gap in our lives without God who is higher than us. It is in times of desperation that many of us first call out to Him. Sometimes it is not until we fill that gap, tha...

We cannot prove that coincidences are from God but one Godly man observed that only when he prayed did wonderful coincidences occur. Let's give God the opportunity to answer our prayers by approaching Him in the first place. His answers can be likened to a traffic light system. As with a red light, He may say no, which will be for our ultimate good though we may not recognise it at the time. He ma...

Today's image of a white telephone reminded me that we can all access the hotline to God. He is available to all of us at any time, as many verses in the Bible tell us. "Seek and you will find ..." (Matthew 7:8) is an assurance of receiving a response when we call out to God. We were created by God for communion with Him and He is delighted when we start to do so. There are no conditions attached...

Birds wake up with the light, happily chirping away. Jesus encourages us to similarly and simply trust that God is with us, is providing for us and, as such, we are not to worry. However, God's Word also provides wise counsel on the balance to be made with that simplistic approach in that we also carefully consider and reflect on God's Truths so we are not ignorant of them. We will thus have guida...

It is such a wonderful truth that Love can be multiplied without any limit, as can be attested by parents when they have more than one child. Love doesn't have to be divided and shared out. Father God loves all His creation unconditionally. When we understand and receive God's Love, realising we are the beloved of an amazing King, we find we can increasingly give out love limitlessly even to the s...

There is an anecdotal account of an ancient king wanting a bath created for him and provided his hand span measurement as the measurement to be used. However the creator of the bath translated the king's hand span for his own smaller hand span, resulting in the bath being too small. This anecdote was for the purposes of indicating the need for universal measurements but actually for the purpose of...

I initially saw the capital letter T in the clouds which I felt was representing Jesus as part of the Trinity, both when He was recorded in Acts 1:9 as going up behind a cloud 40 days after He had been crucified, to reside in heaven, and also when He is recorded in Revelations 1:7 as coming back to earth with the clouds. Whether low or high level, clouds can be seen from earth. This can be a remin...

I saw a baby crib being rocked with a sense of fulfillment, a birth, so to speak, of a promise. I believe that this is a prophetic message to the listener or reader of this message that God wants you to receive a promise from Him very soon. This is a prophetic word, with the prophetic ministry being one of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the First letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12. First Cori...

At first I thought I was seeing a sheep hanging upside down to be roasted as a sacrifice. The reality of the sheep being the right way up, alive and walking had initially escaped me. This is a good reminder that we sometimes need each other to remind us of God's perspective of life and truth. "... so that we may work together for the Truth". (3 John 8b). This helps us to not veer off in negative t...

Happiness is often connected to our happenings whereas the essence of joy is connected to a deep awareness of something beyond our circumstances. The apostle Paul exhorts us in repeated fashion to "Rejoice in the Lord and again I say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4). As our minds and hearts think more on goodness we will develop that wonderful sense of joy, enveloped in peace. As Paul continues to say...

In the gospels of Luke (23:44), Matthew (27:45) and Mark (15:33) the accounts of Jesus's crucifixion describe the complete darkness on earth from noon to 3.00 p.m. whilst Jesus was dying. Jesus cried out in Matthew's account, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" as He felt utter separation from God as man's sin fell on him. From Luke we learn that then the curtain of the temple was torn in t...

In Psalm 42 David's soul is downcast and his dire situation is depicted like a thunderous waterfall, with his mind filled with negative thoughts. But then, interspersed within his soul's negative thoughts and emotions is his spirit which rises high with hope. This is what we also have when our spirit connects to God's Holy Spirit. "Why, my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put you...

I saw a carpark being pulled down. With just the posts left in the ground it looked like a derelict place. Actually, it was being prepared for restructuring to a larger and more efficient carpark. Often we may feel despondent when a situation in our lives seems to be going backwards or be in a bad state. Trust God to renew it to a better state. "See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do yo...

Flower petals can still have some form of longevity even after they have fallen off their stem, such as through being part of a dried pot pourri or a scented drawer sachet and yet there is a limit to their life. However, the essence of the flower, from which the petals fell, lives on through its seed being planted and a new flower appearing. Similarly, our essence, that is, our spirit lives on. Do...

God created us in His imagination before we were conceived in our mother's womb. "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13). God knows every detail of our existence. "Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7). God can join all the dots of anything that has ever happened to us and is going to happen. "..The Lord will watch over...

We can create a beautiful vase through God's gift of creativity but we cannot create the beautiful flowers that can go in the vase. God is our all surpassing creator who meets our needs and provides for our limitations, indirectly or directly. I felt this strongly as I flew from Lisbon to London in less than 3 hours, to see family and UK friends. As we increasingly recognise and acknowledge the co...

I saw a sheep wedged tight between a wall and metal wire fencing. The sheep was making no attempt to extricate itself but perhaps it had given up? After I requested help, the sheep was eventually released and she simply walked off as if nothing had happened. Then another sheep came and stood on the wall and could easily have slipped into the same gap. Are we like that? Are we unaware of our precar...

Just like a special cushion to alleviate pain is directly concentrated on the area of need, God knows our every need and wants to fully help us. 'And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid, ..."(Matthew 10:30-31a). It would be impossible to count all our hair and even more ridiculously impossible with it being shed continually. This is why this analogy is all the mor...

From above, we cannot see the contents in the back of a car, with the door open upwards. Similarly, if we have a spirit of superiority and judgement, we will lack understanding and love towards others. I remember inwardly criticising a woman who didn't seem to want to smile. I then discovered that it was too painful for her to smile as she had mouth ulcers. "Do not think of yourself as more highly...

I believe that this rock depicts a negative aspect in our lives such as an unhealthy relationship, a sickness, an addiction, a negative attitude, which He wants us to admit to having, bringing it to him for whatever is needed, victory and comfort. Admitting our need and declaring His perfect provision are both required. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compa...

However intellectual and experienced we are we cannot comprehend, on our own, God's great mysteries which perplex us. We need God's Spirit to communicate with our spirit to reveal His great mysteries and Truths. We can only understand that He has saved us and brought us into eternal life without Whom we will perish, as revealed through His Spirit to us. "For the message of the Cross is foolishness...

My father had a metal silhouette of a black cat in his garden. It had glistening marble eyes and would supposedly scare off unwanted cats. The regular neighbourhood cats soon discovered that it posed no threat. Let us feels confident in the knowledge that Jesus has conquered the sin in our lives and "has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having...