Through the Bible in 66 Days - 1 Chronicles

 

Did you realise that God knows everything? He is looking after us even if we're not aware of it. When some people realise that they say, " Why should we really need to pray? For if God knows everything, why would we need to tell them about our issues, problems and situations? We could get on with our lives, and He will sort everything out as we go along.

First Chronicles tells the story of King David, but you may remember that we read about him in 1st and 2nd Samuel. First Chronicles tells the story of David's life from God's perspective. Please note that God knows every detail of not only David's life but also our lives - our motives, deepest desires, secret sins, and so on. He is the creator, law-giver, and judge, and we will all stand before him and answer for how we have lived at some stage after we die. 

So it is with the Gospel message in the New Testament. The Gospel announces undeserved hope and unlimited redemption. It is firmly grounded in the remarkable truth that God knows every intricate detail of our lives—our struggles, fears, and dreams. Despite His infinite wisdom, He longs to have a deep relationship with us, inviting us to be honest with Him about our lives. This raises a thought-provoking question: If God is already aware of our needs, why should we bother to pray? The answer unfolds beautifully in the pages of First Chronicles, illuminating what a relationship with God is really like.

Do you find it hard to forgive?

We know that forgiveness is a wonderful experience both for the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven.  It is easy to talk about it but it is one of the hardest tasks we are ever called upon to undertake. It can be  too painful and sometimes our pride and sense of status intrudes as we remember what was said or done to us in the past.  Forgiveness requires humility and sometimes we need to cry out to the Lord in prayer for His help in forgiving those who have hurt us in some way.

We know that the Japanese invaded the Korean Peninsula before the Second World War and inflicted terrible atrocities on the Korean people.  Awful things were done to the local population in the name of Japanese imperialism.  After the war when the Japanese had surrendered and retreated from the peninsula many Koreans continued to remember the dreadful things that had been inflicted on them personally and on their family and friends and harboured hatred and bitterness in their hearts towards the Japanese nation.

Getting a Deep Clean

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

 In January 2016, in N. Ireland there was an outbreak of a bacterial infection called Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. In a two-week period it caused the death of three infants. This infection causes breathing difficulties and tissue damage. It is reported that the bacteria can take hold in areas such as sinks and in water pipes with stagnant water and can live for several days on various surfaces. A university bacteriologist reportedly said that this is a bug which is very common in nature. The hospital ordered a deep clean of the neo-natal ward involved and succeeded in eradicating the infection.

Loneliness and the January blues!

All photos courtesy of Unsplash.

A while ago, I read the following comment in the ‘The Guardian’ newspaper - ‘The dilemma, I’m 22 years old and going into my fourth year in medical school. I have been using study to escape loneliness, insecurity and anxiety that arose from the stress of the course and my failure to establish friends’.

Another person wrote in ‘The Telegraph’, “‘Life looks good on the surface - so why are we all so lonely?  ‘But you can’t be lonely,’ a friend tells me crossly. ‘You’re out every night.’ The backhanded compliment makes me laugh. But it also makes me sad. On paper, my life sounds glamorous. Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense than denying you feel hunger’” These are the comments of a high profile journalist who looks as if she is living the high life but most certainly doesn’t feel as if she is.

An investigation into loneliness in January 2020 showed that a fifth of the population privately admits they are ‘always or often lonely’. But two-thirds of those people would never confess to having a problem in public. Here is the problem - loneliness is the devastating unseen result of the pressures and emptiness of modern life when people live devoid of real purpose and meaning.