War and Peace

So, a lot of people in the UK today are angry. They're angry because parliament have taken the decision to perform air strikes against ISIS in Syria. They're angry because it's using money that could be put towards good things within our own country like feeding and giving shelter to the homeless, like paying for more servicemen, nurses and doctors. They're angry because of all the innocent lives, labelled as "collateral damage", that are put at risk when these airstrikes are executed. They're angry because war only brings death, and they're longing for peace and justice.

As we look around us at our world today, many of us may be thinking, "What on earth is happening here?"

Death is everywhere. Injustice is everywhere. Lies are everywhere. Meaningless materialism is everywhere.
Destruction. Distraction. Deception.
World Economic Collapse. World War Three. One World Government. New World Order?

Conspiracy Theories...



In a world so seemlingly empty of hope at times, what are we to think? Do we just try to live our lives as good people, making what difference we can and continue on our way? Do we use what voice we have to shout through our social media accounts and through protests to proclaim what we see as right?
Do we lie awake at night just wondering at what it all means?

Many people, even within the Christian church sometimes, can be thought of as extreme if they follow Bible end-times prophecies. However, the Bible has a lot more to say about what exactly is going on in the world than you might have at first thought, and definitely a lot more relevant.

When asked by his disciples about the signs of his coming and of the close of the age, Jesus tells us in Matthew 24,

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." v6-8.

You can also find this passage in Mark 13 and Luke 21. Now, we know that there have been many, many wars since the time of Jesus, but does it not seem like there has been an increase in the last century especially? Wars, terrorism - it's no longer a question of two neighbouring nations against one another, it's gone global. Even taking into consideration the current issue of ISIS, already Russia, the US, China, Iran and now the UK are involved. Another interesting point here is that the word here translated as "nation" actually means ethnic group. Do we see any particular ethnic groups coming against one another today?

Since being in Ecuador I've felt a few earthquakes, not very large but enough to be felt. Below is a graph showing the global increase in earthquakes which excede magnitude 7 (in order to rule out an increase only due to improvments in global communication and an increase in the number of seismograph stations) between 1973 and 2006.

Taken from http://www.earth.webecs.co.uk/

The graph is fairly telling, and it doesn't even include the last 9 years. Closer to home, here in Quito we've been on alert for the last 4 months due to one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world threatening to erupt after being dormant for more than 70 years...

One thing is certain, the number of natural disasters is on the increase. Coincidence?

Closer to home, the Bible also tells us what individual humans will be like in the last days:

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" 

2 Timothy 3:1-4

Do we see these characteristics being exhibited by people around us today? Maybe, deep within our hearts, even ourselves?

Unfortunately, according to Jesus, these things are only the beginning. Things are going to get worse before they get better. Jesus says in verses 21 ans 22 of Matthew 24, 

"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved."

So, is there no hope? Is real peace just a pipe dream? Are we just to watch the world spiral into destruction?

This fallen world will eventually come to an end. But our hope is that it doesn't have to be our end. 

It is right that we are angry and outraged at the injustice, violence and killing that happen all throughout the world. We are created in God's image and He, more than any one of us, hates those things, and that's why we as humans have this deep desire for justice and life somewhere within us. But we've been contaminated by sin, the very thing that causes us to practice injustice and malice ourselves. God hates sin and that's why He's going to bring an end to this world - but it's also why we have hope. 

God, because of His hate for sin and His love for people has given us an escape. He made a way to cleanse us and forgive us our sin so that He finds us just before His righteous judgement. He sent His Son into this world to take our sin upon himself and die for us and to rise again in victory, defeating sin. It is in him, Jesus of Nazareth, that we find our hope.

One day, after this earth is completey destroyed and sin and evil have been dealt with and erradicated forever, God is going to start again with those who want to, with those who have denounced their sin and trusted in Jesus. There will be a new heaven and earth, beautiful and pure, free from pain, suffering and injustice where Jesus reigns as Eternal King.

The question is, do we hate injustice enough to recognise it within ourselves, repent from our sin and humble ourselves before God to accept an eternity with Him in His paradise, that our heart of hearts so desperately longs for... or would we rather believe ourselves righteous, reject God and eventually be judged alongside the rest of this world so full of evil?

There is hope to be had this Christmas, and his name is Jesus. He was promised from the very beginning, when sin first entered this world, and he was prophecied through the ages.

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me whose coming forth is from of old, one who is to be ruler in Israel from ancient days... And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God, to the ends of the earth. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great and he shall be their peace."

Micah 5:1, 4-5 (700-750 years before Christ)

And now peace is yours to claim through him if you should so choose to.

You may believe all this Bible prophecy stuff is a load of nonsense, coincidence or plain lies - that's your decision - however should you be interested in investigating a little more about the subject, (I have barely even scratched the surface in this post) I would recommend The Daniel Project, a secular documentary investigating the fulfilment and potential fulfilment of certain Bible end-time prophecies, presented by actor, voice-over artist and self-confessed athiest Jeremy Hitchen. You can find out more and buy the DVD on their website, www.thedanielprojectmovie.com

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

Revelation 21:1-4

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:1-7

"And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy."

"Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."

Revelation 22:10-17

The Most Important Yes

So a couple of days ago, it was our first  "engagement" anniversary - it was a whole year ago that Josias got down on one knee, on the equator, and asked me to marry him.
I shared the memory on my facebook page and commented that it was the "second most important yes of my life". However, after posting it I began to think and I realised that, even though Sunday the 16th of November 2014 was the day I officially said yes to spending the rest of my life with this man, it wasn't when my heart said yes.

My heart said yes 5 months before that.

5 months exactly before I had the ring on my finger, the 16th of June, Josias and I were sitting in Parque Carolina in Quito (the largest man-made park in South America apparently) and Josias told me that "he liked me a lot" and we began talking about the possibility of a future together. For some time before that, I had prayed and committed myself to not go out with anyone who wasn't my future husband, and so for me, saying yes now was saying yes to a whole lot more than just casual dating. As much as I was very much attracted to him (an attraction I began trying to ignore since we met, on my 21st birthday in May), and knew that he was the type of godly man that I wanted to marry, I was scared.

I had only been in Ecuador 4 months, I was here as a missionary with a lot of people to answer to and be held accountable to, I had consciously prepared myself for being single and not worrying about men for the 2 years I was going to be serving and had previously decided that communication in marriage was difficult enough without adding in cultural and linguistic barriers, so my preference was to marry somebody from my own country. That's what my brain was yelling at me anyway.

However, amidst all the doubt and fear (of which there were a lot), as I looked at this man who I'd only really known for less than two weeks, in my heart there was a quiet but persistant peace, and as the day went on, that quiet peace began to drown out all the panicky doubts running about in my conscious. I began to feel that, despite being on different continents and living in totally different worlds until 4 months ago, I knew this young man already; my heart recognised him from my many prayers and heartfelt longings from years before.

So the next day, on a bus to Latacunga to go and meet up with a missions team from the States, when Josias asked me for the second time if I would be his girlfriend, despite the continued presence of incertainty and fear, knowing that I would in reality be saying yes to much more than that, that persistant peace somehow fought its way quietly through to the surface and I said the second most important yes of my life.

When I look back at it now, knowing how stupidly in love I am with Josias and feeling absolutely certain that he is the best man for me, alongside whom to live this adventure of serving God together, I also see how easily I could have missed it all. If I'd let my common sense and doubts overtake that quiet peace and direction from the Lord, I would have missed out on the second biggest blessing of my life.

As I've been thinking about this "second most important yes", it has also reminded me of the most important yes of my life, a yes to God; a yes to repentance and humility in accepting that without Him I am a hopeless sinner in need of grace; a yes to Jesus and the life He has to offer me; a yes to a life lived only for Him (I'm still working on that some days!). As I've been thinking, I've realised that my two most important yeses actually have a lot more in common that I might have first believed.

In the same way I had to take a leap of faith in saying yes to Josias, saying yes to God also requires that same leap. In the same way I was bombarded with doubt and fear about what may happen if I potentially said yes, there are also doubts and fears that can try to grip our hearts as we contemplate a life with God. However, in the same way that there existed that small and almost silent peace in my heart that told me saying yes was the right decision, so also God softens our hearts to hear Him and His Holy Spirit quietly tells us that it is all true: that we really are hopeless sinners who one day will face eternal judgement for our bad decisions and that there really is a loving God who sent His Son to die in our place and who rose from the dead, forever defeating sin and death. And in the same way my heart recognised Josias as the man I had prayed for and longed to be with, so too our hearts recognise the loving Creator God who made and designed us to live in divine fellowship with Him.

However, just like I would have missed out on this wonderful marriage with Josias if I had given into those doubts, so we too miss out on the greatest relationship we could ever have if we allow our human thoughts and doubts to overcome that small, still voice of the Holy Spirit and cause us to reject what our hearts know to be the Truth.

But if we do take that leap of faith, and we say the Eternal Yes to God's proposal, we land on a small and narrow path on which we find love, intimacy, acceptance, forgiveness and the One whom our soul loves, and as we get to know Him more and more, as we see His faithfulness at work in our lives every day, the stronger that faith becomes and the doubts slowly fade away into nothingness. One day, when the church, His bride, is seated at the marriage feast of the lamb, we will be living no longer by faith but by sight.

Now that I'm married to Josias, I can't believe I ever doubted that he wasn't the one for me. Sure, the Ecua-Wife Life isn't always simple or easy, and I had to make a lot of difficult and some extreme decisions to get here but I would never, ever give up my marriage with Josias. One day, when Christ comes back or I'm taken to be with Him in glory, that's exactly what it will be like, only infintely more, and I'll be infintely thankful to God who helped me to say the most important yes.

*This is a double post of something I wrote for my other blog "The Ecua-Wife Life" which focuses on my life in Ecuador and my own personal thoughts and things that God is teaching me. If you would like to read more, you can access it via the tab at the top of the page.

The Minions

So a few weeks ago, my husband and I (when does it stop feeling amazing every time I get to say that?!) took an impromptu trip to the cinema and, being the two adult-sized children that we are, we decided to go and see Minions.

Now, before I say anything else, I just want to express how hilarious this film is and if you haven't seen it then you should. We had a really great time and laughed the whole way through. Something else interesting about the minions, before I move on, is that watching the film as someone who is bilingual is really interesting and funny because it turns out- after researching a bit before writing this- the minion language, or "minionese" is a hilarious mix of lots of different languages, so when we rewatched the film again last week but this time in English, it was really funny to still hear the minions saying things in Spanish. 

(P.S Check this out. Have fun and you're welcome: http://minionstranslator.com/ )

Now to the point!

If you haven't seen the film yet, the whole plot is built around the fact that, from the beginning of their existence, the minions have always had a bad-guy boss, and their whole life purpose is built around this need to serve a boss. However, managing not to kill their boss off proves a challenge and, after one of these unfortunate incidents, the minions find refuge in a giant ice cave and for a while enjoy safety and happiness inside the cave having all sorts of fun for themselves. But the fun only lasts so long and soon the minions find themselves depressed and unfulfilled. 

Cue our hero: Kevin. 

Kevin courageously comes up with a plan, to leave the cave in search of a boss and not return until he has done so. And I won't give away anymore for those of you who haven't seen it!

After watching it the second time, I realised that we men and women aren't actually that different from the minions. We too, whether you've realised it or not, have this in-built purpose in our make up. As human beings, we feel this need to serve something or someone, to dedicate ourselves to a particular cause; to find purpose for our lives. Whether it's religion, charity work, a football team, a job, furthering our education, family, children, finding love... the list goes on. 

But the point is none of these things really bring us true, lasting fulfilment. There is always something missing.

We're always telling ourselves, "I'll be happy when...":

I'll be happy once I'm popular; I'll be happy when I'm studying what I want to at university; I'll be happy when I have my dream job; I'll be happy when I find the love of my dreams; I'll be happy once we have our dream house; I'll be happy when we have children; I'll be happy when we have a better car; I'll be happy when I get a raise at work; I'll be happy once this problem goes away; I'll be happy after the divorce; I'll be happy when I can retire; I'll be happy when... I'll be happy when...

And it's because we know that there's something missing. Except we look for it and think we'll find it in all the wrong places.

God created us with the purpose of being in relationship with Him and bringing glory to Him. It's at the very core of every one of us. Except that, because of sin, we are now incapable of fulfilling that purpose. Sin is everything that goes against the very character of who God is, and so because we have become sinful beings, compelled to do all of things that offend God and go against His character and His design for us and this world, we are separated and cut off  from God, unable to either to be in relationship with Him or live in a way that pleases and glorifies Him. 

We are no longer able to fulfill the very purpose for which we were created. 

And so we go off, searching for things in which we'll find fulfilment and maybe we do find it- for a while. But sooner or later we discover that these things or people don't live up to the high expectations that we had and, like the minions when they tried living outside of their purpose, we find ourselves disappointed and unsatisfied. But it wasn't meant to be this way.

God loves us so much, and so longs for us to be able to fulfil that original purpose, to be in a loving Father-Child relationship with Him, that He formed the most scandelous and epic rescue plan to save us from our sin and build a bridge over the deep chasm that sin created between us and enable us to fulfil our true purpose: God Himself, the Almighty Self-Sufficient Creator of all the vast universe, humbled Himself to come to earth as a man to serve us, imperfect, fickle and hopelessly helpless human beings, and to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice in our place and pay the price that our sin demands: death. It was a plan so shocking, that even the Jewish Religous leaders, seeing it all happen before their eyes, didn't believe it, even though their scriptures predicted every single detail of it! Even when Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death once and for all, they weren't willing to believe it. 

All we need to do, is want it. You see, the religous leaders didn't want to believe it, because believing it would mean leaving all they knew behind, including their self-made God of religion and rules and the power that came with it. They had become "minions" to their selfishness and desire for power. Namely, their sin. And they weren't willing to leave it behind to believe in Jesus, their Saviour. 

We have that same choice today.

God has made a way for us to be free, to live life in abundance, in a loving, fulfilling, satisfying relationship with Him, but in order to have that we must choose to leave our old life, our old gods, and our old boss- sin- behind. You see, the Bible talks about how we make ourselves slaves (or "minions" in this case) of the one whom we obey. We have the choice of being minions to sin, which leads to death, or of being minions to obedience which leads to righteousness. You cannot choose both. Jesus died and rose again to free us from sin, and so to accept Him we must want to be saved from that sin. Relating it to the minions, they had to want to leave the cave; they couldn't serve the new boss that Kevin was going to find unless they left the cave first. 

This "cave-life", living as minions to our own desires and sin doesn't offer us satisfaction. It's not what we were designed and created for. We were designed to serve and bring glory to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, Creator of heaven and earth, the God who is love, grace and mercy, ready to receive whoever would call upon the name of Jesus for salvation. It might feel good now, in the temporary, but all sin does is entrap us, deceive us, destroy our lives and rob us of the joy that we could have in Christ Jesus.

The time is now. None of us knows when our time here is up. Don't leave this offer of salvation and life on the table. 

To whoever is reading this, wherever you are in this world, whatever situation you find yourself in, God is good and He loves you. When you were His enemy, slandering Him, rejecting Him, sinning against Him, in the very worst moment of your life He loved you enough to die for you. Don't just walk away from that.

Also, I love you too. And I love my God. It is because of that, because of the relationship that I have with Him that I can love others too, and need to share what He has done in me and declare His gospel- the Good News- that there is a God who, despite our rejection of Him, loves us and made a way for us to be with Him forever.

Passages of the Bible referred to (extra reading!):

Romans, chapter 6, verses 15-23

Romans, chapter 5, verses 6-11

The Gospel of John, chapter 10, verses 9-10

The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 9-13

Isaiah, chapter 55, verses 6-7