3 Prayers To Help You Share the Gospel

I'm not a natural at openly sharing the gospel with people, even though I believe it with all my heart and want others to believe it too. In infant school apparently I used to tell all my friends about Jesus while they were gathered around me. But something changed somewhere, probably because of the bullying that came along when we moved to a school in a different part of the country.

So in trying to get better at it, I have bought several books on evangelism over the years. One of them that I read quite a while ago told me something that I have never forgotten. It said to pray for three things:

1. An opportunity to share the gospel - this helps you to be on the look out for opportunities because you've made it a matter of prayer. It also means that you are asking God to give you natural ways of doing it where you won't have to force it in the conversation.

2. The courage to use it - I definitely need this, and probably most people do as we are so often prone to fearing what people think of us.

3. The wisdom to know what to say - We might have an opportunity and courage, but if we don't know what to say then it's not much help! But God can give us the words we need.


We have a good example in the Bible, of Paul who asked for prayer in these areas:

Meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 

that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Col 4:3,4

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Eph 6:18-20

When I pray for these things God often answers my prayers in a way that amazes me.

I usually end up finishing talking to someone and suddenly realising - 'I've just witnessed to someone!' It all happens so naturally because I've prayed for help and God has helped me.

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UK Fellowship Friday

I've decided to abandon this project at least for the time being. There were quite a lot of links when I started, but it has gradually dwindled down to 0-1 a week! This also hasn't been helped by the fact that I sometimes forget or don't have time to post something at the time that it's needed!

Along with that I also want to make sure I keep my family as a higher priority, and with so little time on my hands right now I need to be careful not to add any extra deadlines that could come in the way of that. Thank you to everyone who has taken part though, it has been good to get to know other Christian bloggers in the UK!

Update on Memorising Proverbs

I have been attempting to memorise Proverbs since last May, and because I had heard that a goal was good, I set a goal of memorising it in a year. Well I can safely say now that even with a miracle, it's not going to happen!

I have managed with God's help to memorise chapters 1-9 in a way that I know them pretty well and am just reviewing them once a fortnight-ish to learn them better and to keep them in my memory.

My difficulty came with a few things:

• We moved house in July, and though the preparation wasn't too bad, it seems to have taken ages to get into a normal routine afterwards with things sorted out properly!
• We have had a lot going on which is nice but also lessens the 'brain-doing-nothing' times when I tend to memorise, as I am more distracted or tired.
• In September I started homeschooling Caleb (my 6 year old) properly. Previously I was only giving him half an hour a day, whereas now it has gone to 2.5 hours a day, and another 45 minutes for my daughter. So now in those cooking and doing dishes times that I used to memorise, I am just trying to get it done as fast as I can to fit everything else in the day!
• Chapter 10 and onwards are extremely difficult to commit to memory and retain because they are mostly stand-alone proverbs and are not really connected. 

I had wondered how it would be once I got to the part where all the proverbs are one-liners, and it is very hard. It is possible to do it, as I could at one point recite each of chapters 10-14. The problem was that I wasn't reviewing them enough so couldn't do them together, and lost a lot of the order. Though I can remember most of the verses once I know the first two words, it is very hard to remember which one comes next!

So having realised that I am having trouble with all of those chapters, I have gone back to the ones I don't know very well and am trying to learn them thoroughly again, but this time without making the mistake of not reviewing the others enough!

I have also come to the realisation that I would be happy just to be memorising something - how much I memorise is not so significant. So my new goal is to aim at a chapter a month. I don't even think I will manage that, because every new chapter that is learned means more to review! But it is good to have a goal otherwise I won't go anywhere :)

The main thing is that I am slowly memorising scripture. And I would encourage you to do the same if you are considering it - not to stress about it if you don't do it as fast as you wanted to, but just to memorise slowly and steadily. It is great for the brain to be focused on the word of God, and helps with all kinds of things when you do have it committed to memory!

Favourite Links & UK Fellowship Friday

I've actually managed to find the time to skim through Google Reader and read some posts this week! So here are some of my favourites:

Finding true purpose at home - ways mothers can be a blessing

7 steps to becoming a happy person others want to be around - the problem with complaining and steps to reverse the pattern

I was warned by Job this morning - do we really treasure God, or other things?

Yeah, praise the Lord, anyway - real experiences of praising God through good and bad

7 motives in our work - motivation for our work as Christians

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UK Fellowship Friday Blog Hop

This blog hop is for Christians who live in the UK to link to a post you have recently written that mentions your faith in some way. 

If you join below, it would be great, though not required, if you could link to this post on your blog so your readers can find the other posts in the blog hop.

Just click on the 'Click here to enter' and it'll ask you for the title, url and a picture for your post - it will give you a choice from your webpage.

Also there is an option to 'Get code' which means that if you paste the code into your own blog you can display the blog hop there. If you do this I would appreciate it if you could explains who the blog hop is for, so that your blogging readers can know whether to join in or not.

When Work and Ministry get Tough

Sometimes it seems like everything is failing. Or people make comments or don't seem to approve. Or what you're doing just gets hard, for various reasons.

The thing that I always come back to, is to tell myself this:

"Just focus on what God has called you to do"

Because things can get out of focus so easily, and there are nearly always some people who don't agree with what you're doing. But what is most important is doing what God wants:

 The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 

1 Jn 2:17

Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, was faced with the sorrow and torture that he was going to have to endure, and submitted Himself to God's will.

   "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." Matt 26:39

So when I struggle with various things, I always try to remind myself just to concentrate on what God has called me to do and not to worry about what people think, how hard it is, or how unsuccessful it appears to be. And it always gives me so much peace just to focus on that one thing!

'Courageous' Review & UK Fellowship Friday

I must be losing my mind slowly - I keep forgetting that I need to post a link up on Friday mornings! Anyway, better late than never, so here it is finally - please scroll to the end of this post to find it. If you are not sure how to link up you are more than welcome to e-mail me.

I have been hearing about the Courageous DVD for a while now so I was excited to watch it last week with my husband. I am posting this review because I think it is a really good video and want to recommend it.

It is made by the same people who created 'Fireproof' - another great Christian film which I think you should definitely try to watch if you are having any marriage problems, or even just want to have a better marriage.

'Courageous' started off a bit slowly, but soon got interesting. It is centred on the lives of four police officers and another man who joins their group of friends. Tragedy strikes in one of their homes, leading to the father writing out a resolution to be a better father and husband, and he asks all his friends to hold him accountable. Once they understand what he is doing they decide to join him, and the film goes on to show how it affects their families and lives.

So often we are reactive rather than proactive about life -we let things happen to us rather than planning to do things the best way we can with God's help. This is a great encouragement to men to do what they are called to do in the Bible and lead their family spiritually, and to be the kind of father, husband and man that God wants them to be.

It is rated a 12 in the UK, and I wouldn't let my kids see it till they were probably around that age if not older, because it does contain violence when the police meet some gang members and end up shooting at each other.

Although the message of this film is aimed at men, I think it is a good film for women to watch too. As mothers we also have a responsibility to love and teach our children and guide them the right way, and be the right kind of wives too. So this a good reminder of that. Plus it also shows how being a person of integrity and honour can be very hard, but pays off in the end.

If you want more details, the Focus on the Family review of it is here.

UK Fellowship Friday Blog Hop

This blog hop is for Christians who live in the UK to link to a post you have recently written that mentions your faith in some way. I have changed this description a little bit, because I was afraid saying to post things that encourage others might put some people off if they think their post is not encouraging! Really though, I think any posts about God or the Bible would be encouraging, since it is just good to know there are other Christians out there. 

If you join below, it would be great, though not required, if you could link to this post on your blog so your readers can find the other posts in the blog hop.

Just click on the 'Click here to enter' and it'll ask you for the title, url and a picture for your post.

Also there is an option to 'Get code' which means that if you paste the code into your own blog you can display the blog hop there. If you do this I would appreciate it if you could copy and paste the first sentence above that explains the blog hop, or just explain it yourself, so that your readers can know what it is about and whether to join in or not.

Intimacy in Marriage

I wasn't quite sure about whether to write this, because I was afraid everyone might run a mile! But this blog is here to share what God is teaching me, and since we just studied the subject of intimacy (sexual relations) in our women's ministry, it has been on my mind, so I went for it :)

From studying the chapter in The Excellent Wife, the Bible, my experience, other books, and my counselling course, I have come to a conclusion that there are a few things which are probably the most important to know and remember in this area. So here they are:

1. It is a gift from God.

When we remember that it is not something dirty, but a gift from God, we lose some of our embarrassment, see it more from God's perspective, and are even able to pray about it!

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love. Prov 5:18,19

2. It should be other-centred.

TV, films and modern thought all makes it out to be for us, for our pleasure, what we get out of it. But as Christians we need to look at it from the perspective of giving and loving the other person - which is really the path to greater joy.

Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. 1Co 10:24

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another Rom 12:10

3. Communication is a must!

OK so this is definitely for women. We need to communicate, as men don't have much idea of what feels good to a woman because they are not women!

4. It is important for guarding against temptation


We need to keep intimate relations regular and continuous not only for the health and closeness of the marriage, but also to keep each other from being tempted.

Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 1 Cor 7:2-5

For anyone struggling in this area, or just wanting to improve or learn, there is a great Christian book out there devoted to the subject, called Intended for Pleasure. Some pastors even make this mandatory reading for pre-marital counselling. The world has twisted this gift of God so much, that we really need to correct our thinking on it, and view it as God sees it.

Linking to Spiritual Sundays

Fear, but Do Not Fear

I was struck the other day while reading, how two seemingly opposite characteristics of God are displayed in the same chapter, and I think it is a great illustration of how we should be in awe of God, yet also realise that He loves us with an everlasting and unconditional love.

First God says in a beautiful way how He cared for the Israelites, which shows us how much compassion and care He has for us:

  'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.' Exo 19:4

Then later on in the same chapter, God warns Moses to tell the people not to try to look at God or they might die.

'And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish.' Exo 19:21

It's a bit like what I read in the next chapter - where Moses tells the people not to fear God, but then to fear God! What does that mean?! I think it shows again the two sides - where we should be in awe and reverence of God, but at the same time we shouldn't be afraid of Him in an anxious way because we know that He loves us, and has mercy and compassion for us beyond anything we know on this earth.

  And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." Exo 20:20

I know I often quote Matthew Henry, but I do like how he puts things! Here is what he says about this verse:

We must not fear with amazement - with that fear which has torment, which only works upon the fancy for the present, sets us a trembling, genders to bondage, betrays us to Satan, and alienates us from God; but we must always have in our minds a reverence of God's majesty, a dread of his displeasure, and an obedient regard to his sovereign authority over us: this fear will quicken us to our duty and make us circumspect in our walking.

It is easy to get imbalanced in our view of God. We can go to one extreme where we forget that God is to be feared, or we can go to the other extreme where we are afraid of God to the extent that we don't dare to come near Him after we've sinned, even though we've repented, because we feel like He won't accept us. Whereas the Bible clearly says that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

I think it is important that we read through the whole Bible regularly, so that we get the right view of what God is like and get to know Him better. As I read I keep praying that God would show me more of who He is. He is an amazing God!

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UK Fellowship Friday Blog Hop

I completely forgot it was Friday today, so this link-up is just a little bit late! I would love you to link up below if you are a Christian living in the UK and have a post that mentions your faith in some way. 

If you use the 'get the code' part, please just state who the blog hop is for so that anyone wanting to link up from your blog will know. Thank you!

The Greatness of Our God

I have been thinking a lot recently about the character of God, and how what we know about God can really affect our Christian life practically.

Some words in a song I've been playing over and over again expresses some of what I’m feeling right now.

‘I spend my life to know, and I'm far from close to all you are: the greatness of our God.’

Finding out more about the character of God never used to interest me that much when I was younger, because it just seemed so theological, so far away from real life.

But as I look around at the difficulties people have with living the Christian life, more and more I realise how much it is interlinked with our daily living. 

• If we understand God’s mercy then we will be able to repent of our sin and ask for forgiveness and not worry and wonder if He has really forgiven us.
• If we understand God’s goodness then we won’t be afraid to surrender our lives to Him because we know He is good and we can trust Him to provide for us and lead us to the right path.
• If we understand God's greatness we will grow in our faith that he can do great things!

Yesterday I read this in Job:

Look to the heavens and see; and behold the clouds - 
they are higher than you. Job 35:5

We only need to step outdoors to see that the clouds are beyond our reach. And then when we think that God is beyond the clouds, that shows us how amazingly great God is!

O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, 

Who have set Your glory above the heavens! 

Psalm 8:1

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On a blogging side-note, I have reopened the comments, but will not be responding to as many as before, or visiting as many bloggers as before due to the time it is eating up! But I do read and appreciate them - thank you :)

Linking up with Winsome Wednesday, Women in the Word

God Loves to Bless Us & UK Fellowship Friday

We had a wonderful holiday in Holland, and I was very surprised because I hadn't expected it to be so nice! But God blessed us with a lovely place to stay and we had great family time. I love nature, so to be staying in surroundings like this was rest for my soul!

It was even better than this usually, as our car wasn't there!

Caleb coming back from examining the icy lake

We mixed up eating a bit, sometimes eating out and sometimes cooking our own food, and one day we were in a shopping centre, my husband was feeling terrible, and the kids were hungry. But we couldn't find anywhere to eat that would work for us, so I shot a quick prayer up to heaven. 'Lord, please help us to find a restaurant that we will all like quickly!'.

Two shops later, in the most unlikely, industrial, area of the shopping centre, there sprang into sight a lovely restaurant that was affordable, child-friendly (they even had on-the-wall jigsaw puzzles for while we waited) and had great food!

Then a few days later we decided to try and find a 'Pannekoeken Huis' - pancake restaurant. The Dutch make really big pancakes with bacon, or ham and cheese, or anything else you might want. It is like your own personal pizza but in pancake form, with syrup on the table - so yummy! So I googled it and found one roughly on the way between my grandma's house and where we were staying.

We got to the town, and there was confetti strewn all over the streets and people dressed in funny costumes everywhere. Apparently there had been a carnival that day. When we found the pannekoeken huis it was absolutely choc-a-bloc with costumed people, and also with extremely loud music! Since we have small kids it was a bit too loud and busy, so we retreated and went back to our car feeling a bit sad that our attempt at finding pancakes had failed.

We drove towards home, and were going to try and find a place to eat somewhere on the way. The kids were hungry and we were all wondering whether we were going to find anywhere. I was starting to feel a bit anxious when the verse came into my mind:

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." Matt 6:31-32

So I decided to pray again rather than worry - 'Lord please help us to find a restaurant soon!'

A minute or so later, Clint said, 'Is that pancakes I can smell?', we got closer and closer, and we saw a place called 'Peter Pan', and it had a sign of a man standing on something, which looked more and more like... and yes it was... a pile of pancakes! At the same moment I saw the description - 'Burgers & Pannekoeken' and I yelled, 'It's got pancakes! Turn in!'

Yet again, God had blessed us beyond belief with a restaurant which was almost so good it would be worth going back to Holland just to go there! It was so child-friendly that I didn't have to worry about the kids making noise, and we all had yummy big pancakes to eat even though it hadn't shown up in Google :)

So my conclusion from all that was that God loves to bless us, and He also loves us to ask for things so that He can answer and bless us!

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UK Fellowship Friday Blog Hop

This blog hop is for Christians who live in the UK to link to a post you have recently written that might encourage other Christians.

If you join below, it would be great if you could link to this post on your blog so your readers can find the other posts in the blog hop.

Also there is an option to 'Get code' which means that if you paste the code into your own blog you can display the blog hop there. If you do this I would appreciate it if you could copy and paste the first sentence above that explains the blog hop, or just explain it yourself, so that your readers can know what it is about and whether to join in or not.