Update

SATURDAY 14TH JUNE 2008

 

Hoping that this time I will manage to get this to you TODAY.    Last week I was completely foiled in my attempt by our Server who for some odd reason locked us ALL out until Monday morning.     Sorry about that, if you went to the trouble of looking us up.     Although from the weekly count it seems not too many of you actually visit ...... I guess I might be boring you by being too long winded  and also not perhaps keeping to the main issue of TFH news.      Of course, there is often not a lot of news in any case, as our routine and daily grind is fairly unchanging.    Well this week I was going to tell you that the ARMY had disappeared out of town and that all is quiet and peaceful in every way ----- it remains just so... BUT this morning, as we were in town doing some last minute shopping, we did notice a couple of army personnel WITH guns strolling along amid the jostling people in the High Street.   No one seemed in the least disturbed by their presence, and they were still in a happy mood.

Four of our Primary children from the Homes have been involved in petty theft from amongst their peers this week in School.      They are all in the region of 12 years old and all boys.    Two from Jacaranda Cottage have been with us some years already, and one each from Drakely and Tyndale.  Two of these children came from the Street.   This is not the first time they have been in trouble.       None of them are what you might call 'difficult' children socially.     Generally pleasant and easy to get on with.

Why are they stealing suddenly?       Well of course we are often without much light when we meet this kind of aberration turning up in a life that had previously been without comment.     Do we need a Physiologist or Psychiatrist to advise US or council THEM.      I guess some would definitely say that we do.     Right now there is a great deal of talk about having councilors come to the Children that are in Children's Homes and other places, that have suffered shock, hurt and sometimes abuse, as well as loss of home and family, during the New Year Troubles.      Whatever happened to common sense ?        Well I must not be too radical I suppose, but I feel that we are a different kind of people to those who went through the 2nd World War without any such help either during or afterwards, and yet managed to GET THROUGH and OVER it by their own and other's generally human compassion, understanding, and plain old common sense.        These days we seem to be unable to face up to anything - even a headache.     How did JESUS get through His 'trauma' I wonder.        Still I must concede there will be a few instances where some professional guidance and help may be needed.    BUT, I am too old to believe that EVERYONE needs to wheeled off to the 'trick cyclist' and straightened out.       two hundred kids shave passed through TFH to date, and 140 are currently in Residence in addition.      Only TWO (brothers) were taken for evaluation to a Psychiatrist.         Not a bad record - notwithstanding that we HAVE had a good number of difficult, mixed up, and even disturbed  young people in the Homes.   They and we managed to get through into sunlight and normality.      We thank God that it has been so, and we Thank God that HE is able to provide the Strength and Wisdom needed.      YES  with God the Holy Spirit with us in life, the little candle flame of common sense and wisdom we are each born with, is increased and enabled - or could be if we believed.

 

Our Annual Audit has just been completed for 2007.     In Kenya we are of course required by Law to have our financial affairs properly monitored and attended to.  If any of you feel you would like a copy please let us know as we can send you a copy if necessary.   Finance is always a somewhat difficult factor in our lives here.       Insisting as we do that we live by Faith in God's Ability to Provide, and not clearly stating our needs at any time is sometimes quite a difficulty both to those who here working with us as well as those who might want to help us.            We have always stood on Matthew 6v6 and still do so.      We have felt the Lord has wanted this of us as a Testimony to His Faithfulness, and as a spur to our own faithfulness toward Him for ourselves.   It DOES have its drawbacks since we find it difficult to share if we are in a problem at any time - apart from the Lord Himself.         There are times however when having WAITED on the Lord to bring the Bread without seeing any I have E-mailed AENON Trust just to find out if anything has in fact been sent for us.

Should I admit such a thing?       Does this depart from our having Faith.    It might, but it seems to me we should always be honest with each other.     We DO seek to live by Faith in God, and He HAS proved His Faithfulness to us always down through the years - BUT we - poor flesh and blood that we are - sometimes doubt when the 'storm' is all about us, and try to wake God up, saying 'Don't you care that we perish?'      The Amazing and Wonderful thing about this is that He doesn't get annoyed with us - merely rebukes our lack of faith and then stabilises everything.

It is good to know that His Loving Arms are around us and beneath us.     None of us are worthy to be saved, healed, delivered, or provided for - YET there is not one of us He will not do all of this for - again and again and again.     He understand that we are FLESH   -   now WE have to understand the same thing about each other as we pray for, believe in, and consider one another.      God will Bless us for this.

 

I have been suffering from EARACHE for a week or more.     My left ear has apparently a large plug of 'something' lodged just in front of the diaphragm.     The doc thinks I had an infection and that the residue has dried up blocking the canal.       SO I am now on treatment hoping to disperse it - if not the old Syringe will be applied.         I have not had any pain, just deafness.     Interestingly my doc said that sometimes when this happens and the diaphragm is prevented from vibrating because of blockage of sound waves to it, then it eventually becomes less responsive until permanent deafness ensues!!     Amazing.Thus I hope my ear will be unblocked and my hearing become even sharper than it ever was before.      How important to be able to HEAR properly.        It affects so many things even more than understanding, such as balance and even ones stomach!     Straining to HEAR everyone just now, I have realised that I don't really need to hear everyone!       This has caused me to consider -

JUST WHO, AND WHAT ARE WE LISTENING.

TO IN OUR LIVES?

To whom, and what, do we give our attention so that our life is affected?    It is VERY important indeed to make sure that we are getting the right council and direction for our lives; the right advice, the right criticism.   Some time back in our daily newspaper THE DAILY NATION one Seneiya Kamotho wrote -

'Many religious leaders normally claim to have

a NEW REVELATION, or a SPECIAL MESSAGE, or a NEW LIGHT from God.

Some have even claimed that the Bible is obsolete.    They can say things like "God spoke to me the other day".

OR "I was lifted to heaven and Jesus told me such and such."

One such preacher was heard asserting "I went for a swim in heaven with Jesus last week, and He said...."

Others may be heard saying "God is telling you to give me five thousand shillings today, and he will bless you."

They claim to have an inside track on supernatural revelation, and their dreams and visions cannot be refuted,

or examined against already accepted traditional doctrines.'

 

It is true that we should not believe EVERYTHING we hear,.  But we do need to KNOW where the words are coming from, and where they are leading us to!   After all Paul the Apostle was caught up to the Third Heaven, and also at another time received direct communication from Christ.     In mentioning these things Paul does not seek to use them or ADD to the Gospel, or to his own reputation or situation in any way, but rather to emphasize and illustrate the TRUTH of God, to encourage the Christian in Faith and Endurance.

God in the Beginning, communicated with Adam, and told him to avoid eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that grew in the midst of the Garden.   God said, if you DO eat of it you shall

standing near the actual tree in question - near enough to SEE and to reach out and PLUCK a fruit from it.   Satan was within the serpent using it, and HE said through the serpent, to Eve, who was listening to it -

"HAS God REALLY said that you shall  not eat of ANY tree in the Garden?"      Satan knew very well what God had said, but he was hoping to sew doubt and confusion in Eve's mind.   How WELL did she know and understand what God had said?      She understood it very well, and repeated exactly what God HAD said.    THEN Satan said through the serpent - "But surely God did not MEAN that you would actually DIE...?"

And he went on to explain his point of view - and Eve listened to him, and as she listened to him, what she had heard from God began to recede from her mind and attention.      She was hooked by ANOTHER voice, finally yielding to it instead of God's.     She took the GOD FORBIDDEN fruit and gave to her husband also no doubt repeating the Devil's words to him.............     

Genesis 3v17 says - (God speaking to Adam) 'BECAUSE you have listened and given attention to the voice of your WIFE, the ground is cursed for your sake, and you shall eat of the fruit of it with sorrow and toil.

God does not accuse Adam of listening to Satan but to his WIFE!          He who had HEARD first hand from GOD listened to his wife repeating words from another that did not AGREE with God's WORD, and yielded to them.        He chose to put those words in front of God's words.      And lost everything.       He backed the wrong horse!

How careful WE all should be in what we say to each other - we may be passing on a word or thought from Satan himself!        Consider CAUSE and EFFECT.     Listen to the WRONG VOICE and you will PAY for it.      MAKE SURE THEN that you are listening to God.   Make sure that the words you hear do not bring doubt to, or ADD to, the Teaching you have had from the Apostles , and what is actually contained in God's Holy WORD.      Consider 1.John 4v6 -

'We are children of God.

Whoever is learning to KNOW God, and to get an ever clearer knowledge of Him, listens to us;

and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us.

By THIS we know and recognise the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.'

 

READING IN 1. KINGS 19V2 We can read of Elijah the Prophet and the message that Queen Jezebel, that wicked Queen, Ahab's wife, send to him.    In it she had written - 'So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them (those God killed today) by this time tomorrow!'

ELIJAH, all alone, had prevailed against four hundred and fifty false prophets, and had seen God stand with him, and answer his prayers in the most sensational and amazing manner.   BUT when he read this woman's message, he believed the words that were written, and went to pieces, forgetting God, and all that God had done.   He gave place to the words of a godless woman, and made them mean more than the Word of God.  Isaiah 54v17 says 'No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong.   This peace, righteousness, security; this triumph over all opposition is the heritage of the servants of the Lord....'

WHO ARE YOU LISTENING TO TODAY?

Are you listening to your doctor who says you are terminally ill and must die?    Are you listening to the spiteful, false and offensive words of those in your work place that scorn God and Godliness?    Are you listening to crushing criticism and condemnation of those who feel you are lazy, useless, foolish or just plainly worthless?     Are you in despair,, are you feeling DOWN because of these words you are listening to?

Come, come, dear brother or sister!   RISE UP,  Shake yourself, and TUNE IN to God's Voice!    LISTEN to what He is saying to you in Psalm 18v29 - ' By you I can run through a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.   As for God, His way is perfect!  The WORD of the Lord is tested and tried;  he is a shield to all those who take refuge and put their trust in Him.'

 

Turn off the T.V., turn off the Radio, Ignore the multitudinous voices of the world around you and turn your ear to the WORDS that God Speaks and is speaking now to you.     Hide those words in your mind, commit them to memory.    Store them up progressively as you hear them, so that you may at all times bring them out when needed to measure and compare all other 'words' by.

REMEMBER, when Jesus in the Wilderness was accosted by Satan He resisted and refuted ALL that Satan said and suggested quoting the TRUE WORDS OF GOD,      Satan put his hands to his ears and RAN.    We LIVE only by giving attention to God's WORD.    There is no other SAFE voice to listen to.    SO make sure that what you hear is from GOD alone, and no other.    Surely if you are truly straining to HEAR the Holy Spirit will enable you to RECOGNIZE the genuineness of that voice.

 

'Thy Word, O Lord, They precious Word alone can lead me on;

By this, until the darksome night be gone, lead Thou me on:

Thy Word is light, Thy Word is life and power,

By it, O Lord, guide me in every trying hour.

 

Tomorrow I am bringing the Message in our fellowship.    Beginning a Series of Messages on PRAYER.      Hope I will have my ear turned to God's Voice within me.      At least I won't get distracted by noises from without!      God bless you all