The Three 'D's"

"If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." v28             Mark 5:25-34   NKJV 

This well-known piece of scripture, shows us the love and compassion that Jesus carries for His people. This woman had a severe illness, a severe financial lack and according to Leviticus 15:25-27, was ceremonially unclean. She was suffering the three 'D's': DEFILED - DESTITUTE and DESPERATE.

If you have ever suffered just one of these categories, you will know the anguish she was going through. She had almost lost hope because, she had suffered 12 years with a terrible issue of blood and, because of this, she had exhausted all of her finance paying for doctors to try and bring healing to her body. She had spent all she had and now, the pot was empty and she felt even worse.

She had heard about Jesus and all that He was doing and made up her mind that she had to go to Him, there was nothing left but, she had to take the chance of going out into public knowing that she was unclean. Battling through the crowds she saw Him but, because of her low self-esteem, she couldn't speak with Him - what if he told her to go away, or wanted money for healing her? What if He rebuked her for being out in public? She was frightened and went up behind Him and touched His gown. Immediately, she was healed, she knew this without doubt. The thing is, Jesus knew as well because he felt power go out of His body. 'Who touched Me?' Jesus asked. Jesus knew who had touched Him but, wanted her to speak to Him and admit this. 

Frightened and shaking like a leaf, she bent down before Jesus and confessed that she had touched His gown. Jesus looked at her with love and said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affection.'  What had  happened here? She fell down before Him and confessed and for this, she was rewarded. He built her up with confidence, making her feel a human being again. He took her fear and gave her peace in return. She knew that she would never be the same again. She was a new woman. Jesus took the feeling of being DEFILED, DESTITUTE and DESPERATE, and gave her a new 'D', He gave her DIGNITY. He gave this terribly beaten up woman His love and made her dignified. 

And He will do this for you as well if you ask Him. He knows where you've been; the life you have put up with. The disappointments, the let-downs and the feeling of being left out - the Billy no-mates of your area. Why not go up to Him, fall down before Him and allow Him to heal every inch of your physical and emotional hurt. 

His arms are open now, ready for you. Go on, what are you waiting for?

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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Be careful what you say!

"He who guards his lips, guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin."    

                                                                                    Proverbs 13:3  NIV 

The ability to guard the tongue is one of the clearest marks of wisdom. The tongue has the power of life and death (18:21); therefore it is so easy to allow a harsh word to be spoken - one that will kill any trust or friendship in a second. So therefore, one has to take and keep control, over the tongue. This takes discipline.

I read a quotation of Bob Gass' recently that I felt rather apt: 'If God gave you a pound for each kind word you said and took away a pound for each unkind word you said, would you be healthy or poor?' This really is food for thought. How many times would we be bankrupt because of the words we uttered each day? When we are faced with such an anecdote as this, it not only challenges us but can also bring blessing or conviction.

James writes: "no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing" James 3:8-10 NIV. Tony Evans says, 'We have seals that clap, dolphins that talk, birds that flip and dogs that jump through hoops. But the only successful tongue-tamer is God. You need to be filled with scripture and the Holy Spirit.' Tony Evans Study Bible

If you have been trying to tame your tongue, you are on an impossible road, Only Jesus can help here. But, it takes discipline. There is not a chance that a few short prayers can change this. It is probably a life-times work. Each day, as you come to God in your quiet time, you need to be blessed with the power to overcome this. I suppose, it can can be similar to an addiction, you can get so used to saying unkind things about someone, criticising and judging them that, it just becomes second nature. Don't let it be because, one day we will all have to give an account to God as we stand before Him.

So may your Pound Money Box be full to overflowing with pound coins as God awards you with blessing after blessing. If you feel yourself slipping into bad-mouthing someone, stop right there, repent and change your direction of speech. It really makes sense. 

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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Thank God for our Work

"Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people."  Colossians 3:23   CSB

When a holiday or a peaceful weekend come to a close it is so easy to think, 'Oh no, I've got to go to work tomorrow, I'm dreading it.' It doesn't matter if you work for an employer or for yourself, the feeling can be the same. From time to time we all feel this way, it's a universal comment. The thing is, just stop and think what work brings you and your family - it provides clothes, food, a home and all the luxuries that you are used to. It also brings you the blessing of having a holiday in the first place or being able to take time off to have a peaceful weekend.

There are many people who don't want to work, that is their choice. There are also many people who cannot work because of certain problems from, disability or being a carer. There are also many who want to work but, try as they may, can't find the right job to meet their qualifications. Therefore, when we have a job, there is a need to be grateful to God and the need to do it well. Really we work for God so we should always provide excellence in all we do and because of providing this, we bless our employer and the customers. 

Have you ever stopped to think, that when you work well in your job, your boss and company will be blessed too. Just consider Joseph in Genesis 37-50. Everything he did prospered his superiors; from being a butler, in prison and as prime minister for Egypt. His faithful hard work brought success and prosperity. He was a great asset to them all.

Whether you are at school, college, uni, in paid employment or have your own business or whether you are retired and do odd jobs around the home and garden. As you work as if you're working for Jesus, He will put a seal of success upon this work and, like Joseph, whatever you do will be successful.

So the next time you are tempted to think about having to go to work; before you speak out a negative word about it, think and speak, 'This is another opportunity to bless whatever I have to do today. Through my work, I intend to bring prosperity.'

Then, watch how you are able to bring blessing to all you do because you are grateful to God for your work.

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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Get ready for a blessing

So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing, if we don't give up."                                 Galatians 6:9 NLT


Can you remember when you were a small child and the excitement of Christmas morning? After almost a sleepless night, you would wake up very early and see if your presents were either in your room or, round the tree. It was a most exciting and joyful time and you would shout, 'He's been' (referring to Santa) to whoever were listening, usually your very tired parents.

When God arrives and changes your situation as you've asked Him to, it is a similar feeling. The joy and the blessing; the relief and the freedom that you receive are amazing. God loves times like this, after all, He's a loving parent.

The NLT version as above is slightly different to the NKJV.  Where the NKJV reads, 'in due season, we shall reap', the NLT reads, 'At just the right time we will reap.' This tends to make more sense - it comes alive. Think about it, at just the right time, Santa Claus bought your presents - the one's you had been waiting for. In just the same way, Jesus Christ, at just the right time, brought you answers, solutions, provision and blessing to your life. And He isn't going to stop yet!

We can't get away from the fact that there is a waiting period. Mostly, as a child you had to wait for your presents - but they came. In a similar way, Jesus is bringing you a blessing, a provision that you had been praying about. All the fretting, worrying and heartache is over. Jesus has sorted it!

For those of you who are reading this and are still waiting, 'don't give up' because your burden-release, your prayer pleas and cries for help are coming in. In just a little while, you too will be leaping for joy because the King of kings has been and brought you a blessing.

But it must be, 'at just the right time'; not your time scale, but Jesus'. He knows best and He is in control and He won't let you down. So, get ready for a blessing.

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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Speak the Word

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer."                      Psalm 19:14   NKJV 

The word 'Strength' here, in most other translations is known as 'Rock', which actually describes the situation much better. Jesus is our Rock. He is someone who we can trust to help us stand on solid ground whenever we are in a difficult situation. In other words, Jesus is rock solid and many of us have found this out when things have taken a tumble.

He is also our 'Redeemer'. He purchased us at the greatest price by taking our place on the cross at Calvary. He didn't have to, but He did because, this is the way He is. He loves us too much to allow us to suffer without the offer of a Saviour. Therefore, He is our Lord. We belong to the royalty of heaven: 'To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father'  (Revelation 1:6.) We are special in His sight.

King David knew this and often spoke to Him within his Psalms and Hymns. This Psalm is an example, one in which he uses the skill of talking directly to God in His music. It shows us his confidence and boldness towards his God and shows us it is something that we would benefit from as well.

Just think, the bible is God's Word to us. In prayer, many words are unnecessary and we should select the ones that are alive. Thus, why not practice the art of praying God's Word back to Him. The benefits of this are, God has spoken these words; He has blessed them therefore, doesn't it make sense to pray them back to Him? This way we will be sure that we are praying in His Will.

As I mentioned earlier, David used this technique very often and it can be seen in probably the best known of all, Psalm 23. In verses 4 and 5, David personalises the text. The other verses he is speaking in the third person but in these two verses, it is the first person - speaking directly as David to God. Speaking in this way is more intimate; it shows us how  much God loves us by allowing us this right. Let's face it, you would find it very difficult, if not impossible to speak this way to King Charles III. But with the King of kings, it is perfectly acceptable.

Try and put this into operation as much as possible and, you will feel much more closer to your Father.

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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Stay in Faith

"Do not be afraid; only believe."                                       Mark 5:36   NKJV 

The reason so many people say that faith doesn't work is that, they give up too soon. 

Firstly, God wants our hearts to be right with Him, if we are not in alignment with Him very little will happen. It's not that He doesn't want to help, He does, but, He wants us submitted to Him so much that there is no room for doubt or fear. We just know He's on our side and that He will move for us. This is why Jesus told Jairus not to be frightened. 

Fear robs us of our faith; it torments us and attempts to convince us to give up because, nothing is going to happen -  'it is just what it us'. With that attitude, faith is crushed and sadly, many of the people around us, reinforce this by what they say. If we listen and accept their comments, we are lost. Therefore, there is no need to say anything to the unbelieving world around us but, if we do, we need to stand our ground and gently tell them that we believe in miracles. There are two sides to saying this. If the unbeliever sees faith accomplished it may convince them about God. On the other hand, if the unbeliever sees nothing happen, the chance is, they will say, 'I told you so.'

Our faith can become choked. In Mark 4:18 - 19, Jesus says, 'Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word 19 and the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.' Satan fires arrows at us to get us to take our attention off the word and our faith (Ephesians 6). I like what Bob Gass called these arrows - SCUD missiles, the acronym being Satan continuously uses distractions. And he does. If he can divert our attention away from the truth, he will. He can put a stranglehold on our faith, this distraction brings disruption and if we're not careful our 'eyes of faith' are closed.

Therefore, we need to be aware of this and be careful to sharpen our faith at all times. We know that fear blocks faith because, it is an opposite. But remember that impatience will come a close second. We pray for things that we believe to be urgent. However, God reads things differently to us. What is a priority to ourselves may be way down the list for Him. So, don't become uppity if He doesn't answer your prayer straightaway. Yes, He has heard you, He's never too busy not to. However, God believes that you trust Him and part of this trust is knowing that he won't let you down. So instead of being grouchy about the waiting, be praisey instead. When you're praising God, the enemy cannot breakthrough and tell you lies. So, Stay in faith!

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

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How to be Successful

"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed "  

                                                                                                 Proverbs 16:3  NIV

If you truly commit your plans to the Lord, it means you are submitting your will to His. When you do this you are inviting His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. God will be reached and accept your plans. However, to be able to succeed you must believe in what you do! It is ridiculous to plan a vegetable plot, dig it all over, treating the soil with all nutrients to ensure it will procuce a good crop of what you sow, if you say, 'I'm doing all this work but, I don't think anything will grow, I'm useless at gardening.' What have you just said there? You have confessed that nothing will grow, basically you are putting a curse on your activities and you always get what you confess. Therefore, there is no point in preparing this vegetable plot. Do you get the picture?

The way forward is to have an attitude of faith. Beware though, when you start talking faith, some people will become uppity. Faith causes people to be nervous and some may walk away from you, others may challenge you quite strongly. But stand your ground. Remember, Smith Wigglesworth said, 'If God said it, I believe it and that settles it'. Abraham recorded in Romans 4:17-21 had tremendous faith. 'being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised' v21. Even Hebrews 11:6 says, 'And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him, must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.'

Rather like planting a vegetable patch but you don't believe anything will grow, it is akin to praying and asking God for something and believing in your heart that it is a waste of time. God wants you to walk in faith; He wants you to have the excitement that He can give you all that you need so that you can live and eat today. When my wife and I first started in ministry over 40 years ago, we had to pray that God would provide our food and clothes at times. We had nothing but we knew in our hearts that God had everything and what's more, He was willing to bless us with it and He never let us down.

Back in the 40's and 50's people used to say, 'If you want to get ahead, get a hat,' In those post-war days, a hat was a status symbol; you were considered important if you wore a trilby or similar. But, I'm saying the only hat you'll ever need is the Helmet of Salvation. Then put this together with a great load of faith and, God will not let you down. Did you get that? He won't let you down.

Pray this with me:

Lord, You have promised that, if I commit whatever I do to You, then You will cause my plans to succeed. My success will come from aligning my plans with Your will. Let me hear Your voice clearly as You give me wisdom and guidance. Remind me that success is not found in the world but is found in You. Amen

Now go and have a faith-filled day

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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