Time passes

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It’s been a while since I added any posts. I’ve had health issues over the past couple of years which have clipped my wings considerably. It has been an interesting journey. I’m glad to say, I think I’m through the worst of it.

Have just recently been checking some of my websites and found that my links to miscellaneous Amazon books were no longer working. Sigh… they changed their system at some point of time. If they let us know then I guess I missed it. I’ve just spent considerable time updating my very first website (bhojli.com). It took forever. All done now. Phew!

It got me thinking. Everything changes as time goes by, supposedly for improvement. This may be true for some things… but sometimes I wonder if the change was really necessary. Anyway, this has me thinking about what is unchanging, stable and sure in our lives. Jesus is, that’s for sure. During my months of unwellness I often felt encouragement from Jesus that he was still with me, he hadn’t changed, he still loved me and always would. It really helped. And, for this I am most thankful.

I’ve checked this website and updated links that didn’t work. Hopefully, there’s more here to encourage and stimulate you for all Jesus has for you in your life.

Blessings this Christmas. Jesus is real. He came, he lived, he died. And, he rose again! He hasn’t changed. His purposes for us are still the same… to save, to heal, to restore, to make us into the people he fully intends for us to become. Wow!

Healing Prayer Upgraded

Healing Prayer has been upgraded at WordPress.

Hopefully this will mean a more useful experience for visitors. If you use the old web address you will be automatically redirected to here.

May you be blessed as you visit, and read some of the materials available here.

Eternity, no beginning and no end!

I’ve started reading 1 John yet again. So good!! Jesus was from the beginning… but was there ever a beginning? Eternity has no beginning and no end. My mind cannot grasp that. God has ever been, and ever will be. No beginning, no end!
There are vast universes out there. They are endless. Are we the only place where there is intelligent life? Has God created beings in his own image elsewhere? Could be. Have they done better than us? Perhaps so.
How vastly different is our little world trapped in time and space when compared to God with his infinite timelessness and infinite universe, with no beginning and no end. We cannot begin to grasp it as much as we may try. There is no logical explanation. Yet God made us in his own image, and desired to have fellowship with us because he loved us, his own creation. By giving us free wills he introduced a tremendous wrinkle in it all. Jesus has and continues to deal with that wrinkle.
By choosing him our wrinkled will is lined up with God’s. We are then inheritors of eternity. What a healing that will be and already is!

Thank you, Jesus!

Temptation

Some years ago I was strongly impressed with Jesus’ response to the evil one’s temptation of him after those 40 days in the wilderness.

We read in Matthew 4:1-11 that Jesus was tempted to take matters into his own hands to achieve his earthly goals:
– to satisfy hunger
– to get God to do what he wants
– to get world from Satan by any means

He was tempted to move from absolute trust in God to helping God our by his own efforts.

Really for me it comes down to realising that no matter how “hungry” I am to achieve a goal I am to trust Jesus and not help God out by self-effort, manipulation, or idolatrous submission to someone or something else. Phew! Help, I need your help, Lord Jesus.

Waiting Quietly

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I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. (NLT: Psalm 62:1)

Only in God is there certain victory. Somehow waiting quietly before God is essential. Is this a faith thing in that my faith grows by waiting quietly? I think so. There’s nothing I can do to change my circumstances or the situation in which I find myself.
I wrote the above in 2012 and it is still true for me today. No matter how much I may fret or fume, scheme or plan, victory comes from God alone. So whatever the circumstance, look for God, and wait on him. When it’s time to move or do something he will make it clear.

On Gratefulness

I have a lovely little app (called Presently) on my phone which daily in the evening reminds me to consider the things for which I’m grateful in that day. I’m finding this a good way to end the day.
With so much happening in the world which has such a depressing effect on us it is good to look at those things for which we can be grateful. It does lift the spirits!
It may be things such as:
It’s spring and the garden is full of colour, or I had a lovely chat with a friend over Skype today, or my bed is so comfy, or I finally got some good weeding done in the garden.
There is much for which we can be grateful… really the possibilities are endless.
A grateful heart is a healthy heart.
Be blessed today and think of the things for which you are grateful.

Our new normal – face masks!

Since the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be showing no signs of abating, I guess this means our new normal is really just normal now.
How are you affected by it?
In Australia the push to be wearing face masks is growing since it looks as if we’re really moving into a second wave of infections. Too many people have been flouting the health recommendations. Rather sad. In NSW we were doing fairly well until some infected visitors from Victoria came north and have been spreading the virus as they go. Batemans Bay has become a latest casualty which means it spreading in all directions as so many Canberrans visit the Bay frequently.
So, if you’re in the group who feel the need for masking as a protection, why not go as fancy as you like?
Fine Art America has a lot of face masks from which to choose… so, go for it. Click the link below.
Masks at Fine Art America

A dramatic year…

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It’s been too long since I wrote anything on Healing Prayer. Life seems to have had a way of slurping up the available hours in the day. Now, I have to say that this past 12 months have been a challenge in so many ways. Here’s a little review of what that has meant…
1) Australia has been experiencing a drought, a rather long one. Everything was so dry, so dead looking. The grass crunched beneath my feet as I walked around my garden. I didn’t need to mow since nothing was growing. Gardening was mostly at a standstill except watering a little in an attempt to keep the garden alive.
2) In September we had a snow storm, the first I’d experienced in the 9 years I’ve lived here. Such a beautiful sight even though it melted away too quickly. It provided some much needed nourishment for the soil and plants.
3) Then came the bush fires!! What can I say? What an awful time that was for NSW and Vic. The fires came so very close from several sides over the summer months. The winds blew fiercely making things much worse. Each time it looked as if we would ‘get it,’ the wind changed and we were safe again.
4) With the bushfires came the smoke. It was so thick and there was no escape. Going outside proved a challenge for breathing. I stayed inside most of the time and dealt with life from there, though the smoke smell permeated the house long after the fires were gone.
5) Then early this year the Corona Virus appeared on the scene. COVID-19 has disrupted life across the world in ways we could not have imagined this time last year. Australia has fared better than other countries (thus far). Living out in a rural area has been a blessing for me so that lockdown has not been as traumatic or stressful as it has for those in the cities. Also, we have had no postive cases in the region. Sad to say the whole economy has taken a huge hit. And, it seems there is no end in sight for the pandemic coming to an end. Will they ever develop a vaccine?

So, what does the future hold? I don’t know. What I do know is that through it all God has given me peace. My times and my life are in his hands. He is well aware of what is happening all over the world, AND he is still God.
My prayer is that God will bring good out of all the awful things that have been happening.
I am continually pressed to trust Jesus, and not to look at the wild storms all about me.
May you be able to do the same.

God’s Great Love and Mercy

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We have such a merciful heavenly Father! It’s hard to believe that he still loves us when we sin. It’s hard to believe that he really cares when we go off on our own way. It’s hard to take in that he loves us no matter what. It’s hard to comprehend how he knows every single thing that is going on in the whole universe… that’s everything to do with every star and planet, everything to do with every black hole and whatever else is out there, everything to do with absolutely everything on this earth–us humans and our thoughts and actions, the birds and animals, all of nature itself (remember he knows about every sparrow that falls to the ground). I cannot keep track of anything much, yet he sees it all, knows it all intimately, and loves all he has made.
What a thought! He loves all he has made… even the caterpillar that snacks on my vegies! He takes delight in his creation… and I suspect is longing for us to be able to enter into the beauty of all he has created.
I am so little, so small in my understanding and appreciation of God, and yet he is not daunted by my wayward ways. His love and patience with me covers the many years since I became a Christian, and even longer because he planted the seed in my heart and into my family line. Oh, that we would turn to Jesus and find the life he’s intended for us.

Father Heart of God

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Back in 2003 I was thinking about God as Father. I was particularly struck by what Jesus said of his own relationship with Father God all through the gospel of John. It seems like it would be good to come back to what I wrote all those years ago. May Father God bless and encourage you as you read and think about God as your own heavenly Father.
We need to experience God’s father heart towards us. What we know of a father’s heart is pretty pitiful. For some it’s as a tyrant who demands unquestioning obedience and who uses physical force or verbal abuse to achieve that obedience. For some it’s as a slave driver who requires “work” to pay one’s way. For some it’s like a school teacher requiring perfect scores. For others though there may be a physical presence, the father is emotionally absent. For many there is no father because of death, divorce, or other circumstance causing separation of the family.
Our experience of our own fathers’ hearts becomes our view of God’s father heart so that our sense his heart may be one or more of the following:

He’s a tyrant waiting for me to put one foot out of place
He’s violent and vengeful
He’s distant and disinterested
He’s unapproachable
He doesn’t listen
He only pays attention if I get all my ducks in a row
He doesn’t care about me or what I feel
He won’t help me, I have to figure it out myself
He doesn’t like me (because I’m ugly, stupid, slow, lazy, fat, careless, a girl, a boy, not like him, whatever)

Here are some scriptures to help you meditate on Father God. God is emotionally present, kind, loving, gentle, and understanding of our limitations. Our minds may know this but our hearts don’t.

  • Psalm 103:13, 14 says, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust.”
  • Isaiah 9:6 “Mighty God, everlasting father …”
  • Matthew 6:9 “Our Father in heaven may your name be honored …”
  • *John 10:30 “The Father and I are one …” Look at Jesus to get a view of the father heart of God.
  • Romans 8:15 “Father dear Father …”
  • Hebrews 1:5 “Today I have become your Father …”
  • Ephesians 4:6 “Only one God and Father …”