Women. Inspiring. Every Day. 1 & 2 Peter Standing strong in a tough world. No longer orphans. Liz Hansford. Beverley Shepherd SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

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1 Inspiring Women Every Day SEP/OCT 2010 SEPTEMBER 1 & 2 Peter Standing strong in a tough world Liz Hansford OCTOBER No longer orphans Beverley Shepherd Plus Special Article, Ministry Report and CWR Events Page FSC Mixed Sources SA-COC FSC A.C.

2 Liz Hansford Liz Hansford lives in Javea on the Costa Blanca, Spain, where her husband John is the Pastor of the International Baptist Church. Before moving to Spain she was a frequent contributor to Thought for Day on Radio Ulster, Pause for Thought on Radio 2 and Prayer for the Day on Radio 4, and a teacher of English. She is the founder of Empowering Women, an organisation dedicated to reaching the thousands of expat women in her area with God s love. Liz is also involved in local church ministry, prayer ministry and writing for both secular and Christian markets. She has four grown-up children and four grandchildren. Beverley Shepherd Beverley is a long-standing member of the Women s Ministry team of CWR. As an experienced trainer, mentor and facilitator, she has a wealth of experience in the field of personal and team development, working with a wide range of secular organisations. One of her passions is the encouraging and equipping of Christians in the workplace and she is an associate speaker for The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. A regular speaker at conferences, Beverley has written several books including Insight into Stress and Created as a Woman. Outside of work, her time is enjoyably spent salsa and ballroom dancing, cycling by the river (ie on the flat!) and seeing friends. Copyright CWR Published by CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, UK. Tel: mail@cwr.org.uk Registered Charity No Registered Limited Company No Front cover image: Getty Images/Cultura/Christine Schneider. Concept development, editing, design and production by CWR. Printed in England by Linney Print. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of CWR. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Other version used: NLT: Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois All rights reserved. Amplified:The Amplified Bible Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified Bible New Testament copyright 1958 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

3 Standing strong in a tough world You re feeling really low. Not surprising, since things have been pretty tough recently. At best you could call them challenging ; at worst that gut-wrenching word grief comes to mind sleepless, tear-filled nights full of fear and a dawn that doesn t bring much hope. And, as if that weren t bad enough, you are utterly alone. God, by some miracle, could you send someone to help me? Today. But you know it s impossible you re stuck in the back end of nowhere. Then, out to the west you see someone coming, silhouetted against the dying light and hope rises. Could it be...? He s carrying something: a letter, as it turns out. You grab it and rip it open. Just look at those words! You have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials (v.6). He knows! He understands. And look at this bit! You have been chosen (v.2). These are words you can hold on to, wrap your shattered soul in, tuck yourself into bed with. So you let yourself feel special, as you bask in that feeling of being wanted. Wow! you gasp you re going to receive an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (v.4). So even though everything s crumbling around you right now, up ahead is certainty, an indestructible future that cannot be stolen. And you have an invisible protector you are shielded by God s power (v.5). God is standing between you and any danger or threat. That feels so safe! Precious words to hold on to not just for days but for years. They give you truth to stand on. The words don t change your situation, but they show you the hidden reality you have hope, living hope, because Jesus died and rose and you re safely His. Wed Sep 1 1 Peter 1: an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you (v.4) God, thank You that You ve sent someone to me today already with these words of comfort. Let them be truly mine.

4 Thurs Sep 2 1 Peter 1: so that your faith of greater worth than gold may be proved genuine... (v.7) Father, help me to see conversations, difficulties, challenges, or anything I don t like, as possible faith tests designed to help me increase my trust in You. Tested In today s passage, Peter touches on an aspect of God s loving work in our lives we occasionally overlook: the fact that God does, every so often, use times of testing to purify our faith. The Bible tells us (Psa. 11:5; Job 23:10; Isa. 48:10; Exod. 16:4) that He may even arrange our individual circumstances to test and strengthen the areas in which our faith is weak. He wants to see how it does under pressure, make sure it s the real thing, so that when Jesus returns we won t be left looking foolish with a sub-standard, weak faith not worth having. He wants us to be overcomers. The key question is: Did you recognise the last test? Or did you fail to see what God was up to, mutter about Him letting you down and miss the opportunity for growth? For example, when someone hurts you, you can either forgive and exercise grace or talk to everyone about having been wronged and work the hurt deeper. You can gossip or keep quiet; criticise or build up. Remember, temptation is different from testing. Satan tempts to bring about failure and seeks to attack us to destroy our faith (1 Pet. 5:8 9). God lovingly tests to bring about trust. With every test He wants you to grow in faith: He won t do anything to cause you ultimate harm. His exercises are faith-stretching, not faith-crushing. Genuine faith in Jesus is rewarded. Both He and you receive praise, glory and honour He as your teacher, you as His faith pupil. Even more encouragingly, the word revealed (v.7) does not mean that Jesus is just arriving on the scene but, rather, He is now making Himself visible, having been there all the time alongside you. You are not alone as you face tests; He is there supporting you.

5 All for me The palace is built: golden banqueting rooms, lavish salons, huge kitchens; rose gardens are planted and a great area is landscaped with fountains and waterfalls. But who is it for? Locals wonder, but generation after generation watch in vain. The seers and wise ones write about a prince whom they believe will one day come, hoping that he will arrive in their generation. But the time is not yet right, and each in turn dies without ever seeing his face. They know that when he comes it will be for his bride. But when? They can only record the signs of his coming, so a future generation will know. Angels hover around the palace, wondering when it will all happen, longing to know the details, for this is the greatest love story the world has ever known. Then one day the prince arrives, alone. The palace doors are flung open and everything is made ready. She must be coming! The prince goes into the streets and in the darkest alleyway he finds a bedraggled girl in the gutter, filthy and covered in sores. Surely not! say the locals. There is nothing attractive about her and rumour has it that she has been with other men. She is surrounded by rogues and he must fight for her, suffer for her even die for her. But he marries her, just as she is, and establishes her in the palace. There, in secret, he lovingly serves her, tends her wounds, heals her from her past. Miraculously, as the years go by, she blossoms. And, as she trusts in him and relaxes in his love, somehow she becomes like him. And from her rags, a great beauty emerges. We are His chosen ones, His Cinderella bride. Prophets on tiptoe, angels longing, the Christ dying. And it was all for us. Fri Sep 3 1 Peter 1: they were not serving themselves but you... (v.12) All of history centres on me, on us Your bride! On Your coming for me. On Your death for me. On Your great love for me. Help me to see it afresh, as it really is.

6 weekendsep 4/5 Right thinking For reflection: Romans 8:5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. As a woman thinks, so she is. It s that simple. If you think you are rubbish, you will act as if you are rubbish. If you think God can t or won t act, then you will live with no hope and your head down. If you think nasty thoughts about someone else, then you will probably say nasty things about them to someone. You need to dump what Joyce Meyer calls stinking thinking. Stinking thinking leads to a messy speech life and an uncontrolled emotional life. Living with less sin than you did last week or last year doesn t just happen. It needs decisive action. It needs you to think differently first, then to act decisively. So whatever unhelpful thing you feel like saying, make sure you ve got your mind to decide in advance not to say it. As the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, you get to choose what your mind focuses on so don t let it drift. Take a decision to be in control of your tongue; to consciously weed out malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. (Now there s a list for women who talk a lot!) And remember: God s help is available to enable you to change just ask Him! Optional further reading Romans 12:1 3; Ephesians 4:17 24; 1 Peter 1:13

7 Fri Oct 1 John 14:15 31 I will not leave you as orphans (v.18) Jesus, thank You that You do not leave me an orphan, but came to earth for my sake, so that I need no longer be alone. Amen. No longer orphans Friends of mine are seeking to adopt a child. Many of the children on the adoption register have birth parents who are living, yet those parents are unable to parent their children in the true sense of the word they cannot provide the security, protection, stability and love a child needs. When a child is deprived of these he or she develops an orphan heart ; a heart that has learned from experience that you cannot trust others to care for you or protect you you are on your own! This orphan heart then constructs its own set of strategies for making life safe strategies we will explore later in the month. Prior to His crucifixion Jesus washes His disciples feet, shares a Passover meal with them, and then comforts them by explaining a little of what lies ahead for them in the next few days and weeks. In this discourse we read the amazing statement: I will not leave you as orphans. Few, if any, of the men to whom He was speaking were likely to be orphans! What was it about these men that causes Jesus to refer to them in this way? I believe it was the same thing that would cause Him to address us as orphans that deep within each of us, however good and loving our upbringing, there is an orphan heart. A heart that still believes, irrespective of how long we have been a Christian, that we are on our own and that it s down to us to make life work; a heart that has developed numerous strategies to protect itself from pain. And with our orphan hearts we find it difficult to trust our Father God for every aspect of our life and relationships.

8 Oct 2/3 weekend Adoption For reflection: John 1:1 14 Yet to all who received him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (v.12) The term father is rarely used of God in the Old Testament. When it is used, it s in one of two ways: His creational fatherhood (He created us in His image) or His theocratic Fatherhood (He is Father to the nation of Israel). In the New Testament, Jesus introduces a new relationship with God that of God as adoptive Father who has a personal, intimate relationship with each of His children. It is a relationship in which we call Him Abba Daddy. Jesus shocked the religious by addressing God in such intimate terms. In the UK, at the point that a judge signs and seals the adoption order for a child, she becomes a new person in the eyes of the law. Her original birth certificate with her old name is replaced by a new birth certificate issued in her new name. It s as if she has had the new identity from birth. Similarly when we are adopted into God s family we are a new creation the old orphan identity is gone! And we have a new Dad! Optional further reading Romans 8:12 17; Galatians 4:4 7

9 Mon Oct 4 1 John 2:28 3:10 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (3:1) Spend time reflecting on this verse and on how your life would be different if you believed it with all your heart. What would help you to believe? Lavish love A group of us met together one evening to read and meditate on this verse. As we reflected on each word or phrase we were struck by the way God s love for His children for us is described as lavish. One woman described it as being totally drenched by a huge wave that knocks you off your feet not one part of you left untouched. We then questioned ourselves: Do we really believe God loves us in a lavish way and, if we did, what difference would it make to our lives? The answers were revealing. Provision: we would feel secure and never worry about anything. We would be generous, because we would trust His provision. Relationships: we would be so secure in His love that we wouldn t take offence at what other people said or did. We would feel no need to control people or situations we would trust God with them. We would love without counting the cost. Protection: we would trust God to heal our wounds, and so could be vulnerable and open in our relationships. Witnessing: we wouldn t be able to stop telling people about our Dad. As we looked at this list, and then at our lives, we were forced to reach the following conclusion: although we believe in our heads that God lavishly loves us, that we are His children and that He cares about every detail of our lives, our hearts are still those of an orphan. Yet we come back to the promise of Jesus He will not leave us as orphans. He will send the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17) so that the truth of our adoption as daughters can confront the lie that we are on our own.

10 In the beginning Tues Oct 5 Imagine you have just completed something preparing a meal, decorating a room or making some object. You stand back and survey the work of your hands and it is good! Imagine God: He has created a wonderful world including a beautiful garden; He has crafted two glorious human beings who are one with each other and with Him, and He stands back and celebrates: It is very good! Such is the scene portrayed in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 a wonderful picture of secure, loving relationship, purposeful work and bountiful provision. Yet in this garden there is someone with an orphan heart a heart that does not feel it belongs, is valued by others or will be generously provided for... No, this heart is on its own! This orphan heart belongs to the serpent (Satan). We learn in Isaiah 14:12 15 that Satan, having sought to place himself above God, is cast out of heaven. He becomes a homeless wanderer on the earth, an orphan and, ever since, he has sought to destroy the love relationship between men, women and their heavenly Father. His goal is to rob God of all His sons and daughters to create an earth populated by restless, wandering orphans. His three-pronged strategy is simple, yet effective. It is to question God s character, God s word and our identity. He seeks to plant his lies deep into our hearts and minds by whispering: Is God good?, Did God say? and What makes you think that God would care about a sinner like you? These questions and insinuations undermine our trust in God the foundation of our relationship with Him. We start to believe we are on our own orphaned. Genesis 1:26 31; 2:18 25 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (1:31) Lord, as I look at Satan s strategy, please reveal to me where I have believed lies about You, Your promises or my own identity, and how this has affected my trust in You.

11 Wed Oct 6 John 10:1 18 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (v.11) Lord, when the darkness and pain of my circumstances tempt me to doubt Your goodness and love, draw close so that I may feel the comfort of Your embrace and know the peace that passes understanding. Is God good? Over the next three days we will examine each of the devil s questions and insinuations in turn. Today we look at Is God good? Each one of us would want to answer a resounding Yes to this question but maybe our voices sound slightly less confident when faced with hardships, problems or loss. When the sun is shining, there is food on the table, relationships are fun and I feel well it is easy to affirm God s goodness. But, faced with the loss of a child, a cancer diagnosis, mounting debts or the threat of redundancy when having to walk by faith and not by sight it is harder. At such times we either allow circumstances to determine our view of God or allow our knowledge of God to determine how we view the circumstances. In Treasures of Darkness* Sarah, watching while her baby Robert lay dying, says this: Somewhere somewhere among all my fear, I was aware of a flicker of hope. I knew it had to be a lie to imagine that God would impose dreadful things on me, disregarding me. It seemed as if He was, but deep down I knew it wasn t true. To acknowledge the lie was like the glimmering dawn light. I had to concede that His purposes are for good and not for evil. Trusting in God s goodness when faced with the mystery of suffering brings light into our darkness. It is always Satan s intention to steal, kill and destroy (v.10) don t ever be tempted to blame God for Satan s handiwork. Ask yourself: What circumstances in my life have caused me to question God s goodness or even to think that He is punishing me? Will you choose to affirm God s goodness in the face of these? *Jane Grayshon, Treasures of Darkness (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996) p.31.