One Way Mirror

Who would be your lawyer if you were sitting in an interrogation room? Who would be the cop? Who would be behind the one way mirror?

Where will God be, in the room or behind the mirror looking in? Is there a chance that Satan could be there too?

We have all seen crime shows where interrogation rooms have one way glass. We watch how a suspect gets questioned by a cop and how others watch and listen behind the one way mirror. As you know, a one way mirror is where a person can look into the room but the person in the room can’t see you watching him/her.

How many of us keep God behind the one way mirror. How many of us keep standing in front of it, seeing our own reflection, hoping we can see who stands behind the one way mirror?  How many of us keep standing in front of it, seeing our own reflection, asking God to come through it and help us, knowing that we have put that mirror there in the first place.

How often does God put his nose against the mirror with tears in His eyes, hoping we ask him to be saved, sense His presence? So, you ask why doesn’t God walk through the one way mirror and step into the room with us. After all, He is God.

He is a loving, un-intrusive and patient God. He gave us the free will to choose. He wants us to come to him because He desires it. He wants us to invite Him in and He hopes that He doesn’t have to cause us to suffer to realise we need Him. We keep asking Him for things, keep asking Him why for everything but how many of us first truly invite him before we start “interrogating” Him.  

If God is in the room with you, who will He be? Is God the cop urging you to tell the truth, asking for you to face your sins, urging you to repent or is He your lawyer standing alongside you, guiding you, advising you, believing in you, fighting for you. God knows where he needs to be for you but He will only help you if you ask for it.

I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love.

Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3: 17 & 19

Happy and loved while being alone and single

Since when did being alone or single become a bad thing?

It seems lately that people around me don't want to see me alone anymore but I don't feel alone. To me, being alone or single is not a bad thing. I don't feel sorry for myself or feel I need a partner to be complete. I don't need a "Jerry Maguire" to "complete me".

Yes, I know that they just want to see me loved and happy but who says I'm not loved and I'm not happy.
I also love the fact that they have such great love and wishes for me to want this.

It also got me thinking....since when is God's love not enough to fill us with complete love and happiness to makes us feel that we need to have a partner. I also wonder if people realise that you can also feel completely alone even in a partnership.

Right now, I am happy being single. I love the fact that I can go out, have fun and don't need to have someone next to me to do it. I get so much love from around me, from family and friends, that being single is not an issue for me. I am so blessed and I feel loved everyday.

And to be more honest, sometimes having a partner to me feels like having another child to look after and almost another "job" to do. I don't have the patience for this and I also feel I need to be a bit more selfish and do things that make me happy.  It's time for me to look after me and accomplish things I want to do.

"I will give her peace that will flow to her like a river."

"I will comfort you as a mother comforts her child."  

"When you see these things, you will be happy and you will grow like the grass." 

Is. 66: 12 - 14

God's love sustains me and keeps me company more than many know. My faith gives me reasons to smile, to laugh and to be silly sometimes.

If it's His will, God will send me the person He chooses at His right time to me and all I can ask from those around me is that they pray that my eyes and my heart will be open to receive God's blessing for me.

Two Houses, Two Doors, Two People

I stand in the middle of the street, looking up. On the vast incline, in front of me stand two houses, two doors, and two people.

On the left is a woman who lives in a house with seven columns. She likes to entertain people and regularly prepares her food and wine. She sets her table and tells her servant girls to go out the house and shout to the city below, “Come in here, you uneducated people! Come and eat my food and drink the wine I have prepared. Stop your foolish ways and you will live; take the road of understanding.”

Whether they listen or not, no one makes fun of her as she always finds a way to insult them among the people. She will often tell you not to correct those who make fun of her as they will hate you. She tells you to correct those who have knowledge and they will love you.

She likes to teach and teaches the knowledgeable so they will gain more. She teaches good people so they will lean more on her.

It is said that she begins by respecting the Lord and her understanding begins with knowing the Holy One.

Out of her big window, she talks just loud enough to be heard and to anyone who will listen, “Live wisely and you will live long. Knowledge will add years to your life. I will reward those you are knowledgeable but those who make fun of it will suffer”.

I watch the people around me, some listen, some ignore and some, like me, stand deciding. I find myself listening often to these words; the words to my left and the words to my right.

On my right is yet another who shouts to the people below. She is loud and possesses no knowledge. She, unlike the other, sits at the door of her house, shouting aimlessly, also to anyone who will listen below “Come in, you foolish people! My stolen water is sweeter, and food eaten in secret tastes better”.

There are no servant girls who shout for her, just her lazily sitting on her chair, always loud and rambunctious. Her ways seem to entice many.

I watch often and notice that the people that enter in this door never come out. This choice often leaves them deep in despair or in the grave.

On the left lives Wisdom, who is always prepared to share, to teach and help people gain understanding.

On the right lives Foolishness, who only shares to gain whatever she can from others for her own selfish gain.

Is good vs. evil, God vs. Devil not the same?

God wants us to learn from Him, gain knowledge, prepare ourselves for his blessings and then share them with others. When we do good things, we can feel the impact it has in ourselves as a person. It makes us warm inside and makes us smile outside.

The Devil entices us to short cuts, easy “way outs” so he can then turn it around use us for his own enjoyment and gain. Evil makes us feel powerful but for how long? Eventually we either get caught or the feeling of emptiness returns.

In our life, we often have difficult decisions to make; we too have voices to our right and our left ear, telling us which way to turn. Would it help if, in our minds, we were standing in the street, looking and listening to the houses on the incline?

Which door would you choose - Lady Wisdom or Lewd Foolishness?

Proverb 9

Flows softly, Hits hard

Water can flow gently like when the  tide trickles in over the sand but the water further into the sea can capsize a boat, over turn a surfer, hits hard like a wall.

I think, as our parent God can be the same for us. When we listen to His voice and obey His commands, His love flows through us gently, the Holy Spirit fills us like water fills a glass. But when we do wrong, God can punish us and then His love hits us like big waves, hard as rock.

We all need water to live. All creation needs water to survive. We also need God, the Living water, to be truly alive. When we drink a glass of water, it fills us, quenches our thirst and makes us feel refreshed. In John 4: 13, Jesus tells us that "everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life." God does the same for us.

When water sets it becomes hard, turning into ice. Ice is tough to break and can only be chipped away with a sharp object, like a ice pick. Today, sculptures are made out of ice. The artist chips away at the ice, chipping in specific directions and once completed, you are left with a masterpiece of art for everyone to enjoy. God's saving grace, to me, is quite similar. Some of us, before accepting God into our life, had a cold, hard exterior but God, who never gives up on us, keeps chipping away in different, specific directions until He is left with someone who He knows He created beautifully inside and out, for all around to love and enjoy.

Water is soft yet hard enough to hold up Jesus as He walked on the sea. Jesus had faith that the water could hold him but Peter doubted, he lacked faith (Matt. 14: 22 - 36). Aren't we like Peter? God is our water who does have the strength to hold us up but many times we doubt our faith and we fall to the bottom of our water filled glass, struggling to get up. But if we keep drinking God's living water, we too will be able to stay above the surface.

 If Jesus could turn water into wine at a wedding feast, imagine what God can bestow upon you!

"I loved you before I met you"

A very popular song has the words "I loved you before I met you". This verse says "commitment and love" to us. Do you know that someone is committed to you? Do you know that someone does love you?

Commitment defined is "the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc." Synonyms are dedication, devotion, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity and bond.

When we get married or attend a wedding, we are reminded that we need to be committed to our partners until death parts us. This means that we need to be loyal and faithful. It means we should honour our fidelity and that we are bonded in love and life. This is not always easy as the people around us as well as our spouses often let us down in these areas. 

But...have you realised that God is fully committed to you unconditionally and eternally?
2 Timothy 2:13 says, "If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful, because he cannot be false to himself". This tells us that God can't be anything but faithful to us because when we accepted Him into our life, He committed Himself to us as much, if not more that we committed ourselves to Him.

How often do we slip up in our commitment to God? 
Imagine if God felt let down every time we slipped up in our loyalty, faith and bond with Him.
Think back to how you treated the person after knowing they let you down. Now, imagine if God treated you that way. How would you feel? How often would He do it?

I'm not trying to make you feel guilty but just want you to think about it. God is a forgiving God so why can't we forgive those who trespass against us. I am not saying it's ever easy and I am not saying I get this right in my own life but how would we feel if we did? Would we experience less anger and bitterness? 

So....How committed to Him are you?
God wants us to love Him before we get to meet Him face to face. Like when we marry one, we walk in the blind faith that he/she will stay committed to us no matter what, and so God asks the same of us. He too wants us to walk with  Him with blind faith, knowing that He is committed to help us live the life He intended for us. For every mountain we climb, God is there with us, pushing from behind, urging us not to give up on Him and keep moving towards His promises.


Every time you kneel, never forget that even though those around you might be disloyal or seem uncommitted at times, BE SURE that God is fully committed, loyal and dedicated to you. You are bound to Him in Jesus' blood and nothing can break that bond.

A Living Legacy

Everyday we watch adverts about leaving a lasting legacy for your loved ones after you have passed away. Most of these adverts are talking about money. For all of us, this is important but also is creating lasting memories so we take photos, send cards, buy gifts, etc. But what about leaving a LIVING LEGACY behind?

I had my Bible open trying to find something to write about this month - too many options! Paging through it, I realised that my Bible contains probably just as many memories as my albums and journals. Notes made next to Scriptures, highlighted verses, lose note references, bookmarks made by my child, thank you notes, etc and then it dawned on me.

One of the things I pray for is that my child gets to know and have a personal relationship with God, grows up walking the path He has laid and feel eternal joy in His love and grace. I also want my  child to be able to find comforting answers and stories when facing issues in their life, especially when I have passed on one day.

It dawned on me that, yes, I want part of my legacy to be that my child has money to survive and cover any costs but as we all know, even money doesn't last and runs out eventually. However, I can leave a LIVING LEGACY behind for my child - my BIBLE - GOD'S WORD.

Together with God's word, I leave memories that can help my child live a wonderful life, see that I also learnt lessons and that she could learn from God and I in one instance. My child can read and page through my Bible knowing that Mom also faced issues and wrestled with God and also laughed and smiled with the same words.

The Bible was written so we could know how God's wants us to live, love and learn. He left the Bible as His LIVING LEGACY for us. So how awesome is it that we can do the same for our children. Many, many years ago, families would pass on family Bibles to their children. Family trees were written in there so their children knew where they came from and I am sure notes were written in them too. Who wouldn't want to know what Crazy Aunt Dot was thinking and feeling?

How comforting it could feel to know that one of your most treasured items will become a LIVING memory for the ones you leave behind.  Those same pages that you cried over, smiled over and read will fill their souls, give them comfort while allowing God to embrace them with His word.

"All Scripture is given by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right."

2 Timothy 3:16

What do you want your LIVING LEGACY to be? 

What's in your box?

In the Bible, Jews tied small leather boxes to their foreheads and left arms. It was a box of scripture.

Always remember these commands I give you today. 

Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. 

Tie them on your forehead to remind you....

Deuteronomy 6: 6 - 8

In Scripture, God asks us to keep His word and commands in the front of our minds always. He wants us to remember His word because remembering His word will help us live the life He intended. 

On my desk at work, I have a small box of scripture I received as a gift. Every Monday I randomly select a Scripture verse and lean it against my PC speaker and throughout the week, I read it. 

Have I managed to memorise it by the end of the week? With this brain, uh...no but I do pray and believe that I have either learnt something or been reminded of something which in turn helps me to live better and behave better. I also hope that it reminds me of God's love and power happening in my life.

I find it interesting that they wore their box of scriptures on their forehead and left arms. It was worn on their foreheads to remind them (i.e. in their memory) and keep the scripture close to the front of their minds. Even back then, Scripture held a special meaning for each person that wore it. I also found it interesting it was worn on their left arms because your left arm is  closest to your heart. Scripture should always be in our hearts and our minds. Even the Jews learnt that simple rule. 

Imagine if we walked around today wearing a small box on our forehead and/or on our left arm. Imagine going up to someone who is wearing one and asking them what's in their box of Scripture? Wouldn't we be conveying the right message to others? Wouldn't it be a great way to discuss God's word?  Wouldn't it be a great way to learn from each other and show love towards each other?

So...why don't we? Each one of us has a "life motto" or a Scripture verse which as a special meaning to us. Let's try to keep that in the front of our minds and on our left arm (i.e. wearing your heart on your sleeve). Let's ask God to give us the confidence to share this with others.

So what will be in your box? 

Will you wear it and live it in your heart and in your mind?