Heavenly Places

So I was thinking about Ephesians chapter 2. Specifically I was thinking about the verse 6 "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus..."

I've always considered this one of those faith statements that Paul makes - it isn't true yet, but it will happen so we'll state it as if it already has happened. But, then I was thinking about God and time.

God is outside of time, He sees the end from the beginning. So for Him we are not yet created, currently living our sinful lives here on this world and also living on the New Earth with Him. All at the same time.

(The way I see it time is like a swimming pool, God sits on the edge of the pool and He can see all of everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. When we ask Him, He dips His fingers into a particular portion of the time puddle to intervene in the events of our lives. We on the other hand are like ants crawling along a twisted piece of string. We can only see what is directly in front of us or remember what is behind us.)

This means that in God's world I'm already in Heaven with Him. Living in Heavenly Places!!

Addendum - Epiphany 4 and More

So I'm still thinking about God loving me ... and having a few more epiphanies ...


Epiphany 4
When Jesus died on the cross he presented God with the biggest, bestest gift He possibly could.

Jesus gave God the one thing that God couldn't obtain for Himself. I mean God is God! If He want's something all He has to do is create it. Except He can't have a relationship with me because I'm covered in sin and if He comes near me I die. So when Jesus made a way for God to be able to hug and care for me (and all the other humans) the way He wants to, He gave God the one thing God couldn't get for Himself.


Epiphany 5
God treasures me!!

For two reasons. 1. He really loves me and He couldn't be with me, and then it was made possible for Him to be with me after all. And, 2. It was His only begotten Son, who He also loves, who paid a huge price to make it possible for Him to be with me. No wonder God loves Jesus so much. And that can only make me more special to Him - I was a gift given to Him by a much loved Son at a huge cost.


Epiphany 6
God is a gentleman, He will never force me to accept His love.

So while God loves me more than I can ever know or understand He also will respect my wishes. if I choose  to deny and reject His love He will step back and allow me to go my own way. But He also orchestrates circumstances to show me that my best happiness comes from being in a relationship with Him. However it is my decision. It must hurt Him terrible to want to be with me and see me cavorting with His enemy, who He knows is only playing with me for the purpose of hurting Him (God), before he (the enemy) kills me.


Epiphany 7
Once I've accepted Christ, God won't allow anything into my life to harm me.

Having said this I must add that, God is more interested in my character development than my worldly wealth. In preparing me for heaven and eternity with Him than in these few short years we have now on this sinful planet. So sometimes things seem hard here and I question, "Why God?" but those things are to build my character and aimed at my ultimate good. If I don't accept Christ then unfortunately I am outside of His special care and he can't protect me in the way he would like too - because remember he won't force us to accept Him and if He comes too close when we are carrying our own sin then we will die because His very presence will destroy the sin in us and us along with that sin.


I am becoming more and more convinced that it is the Love of God that is the most important thing for us to understand and that every circumstance in our lives and every belief we have about God must be filtered through that love.

The Gospel and The Stick-men.

Every class I teach is started with a 3-5 minute devotional where we discuss a verse from the Bible. I am discovering that it is amazing what can be explained using stick men!!! Here is one of the verses from this week accompanied by my explanation. Then, as I thought more about this verse I had a couple of epiphanies.

“Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence, assured of his glad welcome.” Ephesians 3:12

The Stick-men Gospel:

God is described in the Bible as being a consuming fire.

Sin can not exist in His presence, instead it is destroyed. Just like turning on a light bulb destroys darkness. That means that we can't come into Gods presence because we have sin in us and simply being in God's presence would destroy us. 

He doesn't want us to die, He loves us, so He put us into quarantine, away from His presence - because He loves us and doesn't want us to die. 

Then He came up with a plan to bring us back into His world. He sent Jesus to our world as a human. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and died an obedient death paying the price for our sins in the process. 

Then because Jesus was sinless He was one Human who could go into Gods presence without being destroyed. 

When we accept Jesus as our God and Saviour He adopts us as little brothers and sisters and takes responsibility for our sins. However He's already paid for those sins so there can be no more punishment for them - Double Jeopardy. 

This means that He can take us into God's presence with Him and there is nothing to fear, we won't be destroyed. 

And God welcomes us with open arms and joy!!!!

Epiphany 1:

God Loves Me!!

Yes, I know, the Bible says this over and over again. But somehow I had this idea of God as a reserved being who quietly says "Cat, I love you," and then gives you one of those lean-in hugs where you lightly touch each others shoulders and air-kiss in the vicinity of each others checks. Then you wave goodbye and go and take care of yourself, trying not too bother Him to much, until it's time to touch-base again.

Instead God wants to shout "I love You!!" and sweep us up in a huge bear hug and not let go!! No reserve there. And He doesn't want to let us go off to take care of ourselves, He wants to nestle us into His lap and give us everything we need and more besides. Showering us with good things. (Of course His definition of good is not always the same as mine, but I already know that He has the better definition and even when it seems like what He is giving me is a curse rather than a blessing I know that He can be trusted - like the three Young Men in Babylon I am learning to be able to say "My God is able and willing to save me, but even if He doesn't I will still serve/love/trust Him.")

Epiphany 2:

God must feel so devastated by our rejection of Him.

Imagine if you had a condition that instantly destroyed anything you touched. You can't hug your most loved person all you can do is watch them from afar and hanker. That's God's problem! 

If we come into His presence we will instantly die because of the sin in us. Not because He want's to kill us but simply because sin can't exist in God's presence and if the sin is in us then we can't exist there either. So God is caught. He loves us most desperately but He can't have us.

So He came up with a plan to remove the sin from us. It involved the death of His Son. The Son who also loves us more than His own life, the Son who also is forced to watch us from afar. The Son who gave up His divinity and was born as a human baby, who became one of us. The Son who endured the torture of life in this world of sin, of death on a wooden cross and of separation from His Father so that they could both have future where they can be with us (me) for eternity.

Now there is a way that we can come to God, a way for us to be engulfed in that bear hug, to be held and never let go and we ignore it, reject it and despise it. We take a pass on the greatest love we can ever experience for a handful of meagre excuses; fear of giving up control to a being who is all powerful, all loving and all knowing. Covetously clutching after our own perception of wealth when our potential lover created the universe and owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

Poor God!!! 

Epiphany 3:

When I allow sin back into my life it separates me from the lover of my soul, God.

I am learning that I need to obey God - not because it is the right thing to do but because I don't want to be separated from my saviour. Every time I sin God has to step away from me again - to protect me from  Himself. And then He has to wait. Wait for me to gather the courage to crawl back to Jesus and ask for forgiveness - except that crawling is not required God is desperately waiting for us to come to Him, To engulf me once again in His love and care.

In Conclusion:

I know in whom I have believed, He is revealing Himself to me more and more everyday and I know that I want to be surrendered to His care forever.

The Temple Was Built in Peace

"David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the LORD shall be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all lands. Therefore now I will make preparation for it.” So David made ample preparations before his death. Then he called for his son Solomon, and charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel. David said to Solomon, “My son, I had intended to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house to My name, because you have shed so much blood on the earth before Me. Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’ " 1 Chronicles 22:5-10

I was reading this portion of scripture last night and two interesting and related points struck me;

• David prepared the materials for the temple as a man of war.
• Solomon a man of peace used those materials to build the temple and was given rest.

Given that a temple is a place where God lives, then there are two analogies that I can see - and probably a whole bunch more that I can't see;


Analogy One:

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God ..." Revelation 3:12 

Each person who accepts Christ becomes a member of His church, His body, here on earth. The church is the place where God lives so it is a temple of God and each of us is a building block of that temple.

We (our characters), are being prepared during a time of war. Jesus is moulding us here and now during His war with Satan. Some of us will be pillars as mentioned in the verse above, the rest of us will be other parts of this temple. 

The finished temple that the church represents will actually be put together, 'built,'  during a time of rest and peace - when Jesus comes again and collects all of the people who chose to follow Him and takes them to Heaven and we (the church) live with God for ever and ever. 

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them..." Revelation 21:3

Analogy Two:

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

We were born, 'prepared,' during a time of war, during the war between Jesus and Satan.

The temple is 'built' when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts making us a Temple of God. He brings with Him peace and rest.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness..." Galatians 5:22

Any thoughts?

So That's New!!

Ever since I left New Zealand I've had a lot of people make wrong suggestions about where I'm from. The moment I open my mouth I'm marked as different by my accent.  Over the last couple of years it's become one of my favourite games to make people guess where I'm from. I've had precisely three correct guesses and many many wrong guesses. From the inevitable Australia or highly popular England, to the somewhat less understandable, Germany or France, and on one notably memorable occasion Jamaica! (I mean really??? What are you smoking??? Do I sound Jamaican??? Do I look Jamaican???)

Today however was a definite first!

I'm sitting on the front seat of the bus. It pulls up one stop from my home stop and another foreigner gets on. I make friendly and say "Hi." He looks at me, his expression changes to one of surprise and he says "Hi" too and goes to find a seat. Then the bus lurches off.  I get out of my seat in preparation for alighting at the next stop and end up standing next to this foreigner. He asks me "How long have you been in Korea?" "Six months," I reply. "Oh," he says looking confused, and adds, "Only that short a time, you have an Asian Aura, I thought you were Asian when I got on the bus."

I think Asian tops Jamaican on the 'Most Unlikely Place For Me To Be From' list seeing as this guy didn't even wait for me to talk before he made his assumption!!!!! All I can think of to say in his defence is that I was praying in my head  when the bus pulled up to his stop - would prayer give me an Asian Aura???

Feminine Intuition ... Or Is It Just Fantasy ... ?

I bumped into this on facebook a couple of days ago.

It reignited an internal debate I've been having for a number of months now. Pretty much settled on my answer - but then something will happen which will make me wonder again ...

This post has the has the potential to make all my female friends a little cross with me, and for the record I will say up front here and now that when it comes to the perception and intuition department I am rather lacking. Actually I have NONE!! Or if I do it takes about three months for me to figure out that there is something I should be paying attention too, and then more often than not I put the pieces together wrongly anyway.

So here are my thoughts on Feminine Intuition. It seems to me that perception/intuition/or what ever else you want to call it, is really just imagination on steroids.

You see someone do something so then you imagine the reasons and motivations for why the person did that thing, acted that way, made that face ...

Women tend to jump straight to reasons and motivations without consciously registering that they saw the action or facial expression or whatever it is that set them off. So then they call it intuition. And just because they're sometimes right in guessing those motivations and reasons doesn't change the fact that it's still imagination. Because when it comes down to it, no-one can see inside another persons head.

I'm very interested in peoples thoughts on this ...

Things I Have Learned Or Been Reminded Of This Week

• It is a good idea to remember to close the pressure cooker valve when you turn the gas on - unless you actually want to clean your kitchen floor and bench and wall and stove and ...

• Laying out ALL of tomorrows clothes the night before is a fantastic idea, saves the whole where are the clean socks routine at 5:30am while trying not to wake your flatmate in the next room. On this topic it also a fantastic idea buy 10 pairs of identical socks when sock shopping, never have to hunt for a missing sock partner again. (Been doing this one for years!)

• There is no such thing as too many layers! Every time it gets colder I realise I need to buy more clothes. 

• When going to a clothes shop do not automatically reach for the largest size. They are now too big!  :-D

• Everything you buy you have to carry home on your back!!! Stop shopping for two weeks at a time!!! Wish I was better at remembering this one.

• Check the distance a glass counter top extends over your hand bag with your eyes rather than your forehead - light rays don't get bruises when they bounce off hard objects ...

Autumn Comes But Once A Year ...

Autumn has come to Junggye, that part of Korea where I live. The trees in front of my apartment are a kaleidoscope of colour.

There are maple trees decked out in vibrant red, gentle yellow and fast disappearing greens that are becoming more red every day.

Oak trees made of bronze and gold,

and naked Persimmon trees that only have persimmons, orange as a very orange thing, to preserve their modesty.

All these mixed in with evergreen Pines
- and a bunch of trees that look pretty but I can't name so they totally destroy the lyrical mood I was trying to create :-b

Kids are Trolls - Sometimes

The other day I gave my class a lovely little exercise to make them talk to each other and speak clearly. On the classroom wall I posted the first two verses of a poem and divided the kids into pairs.One person from each pair had to sit down at the other end of the classroom with a pen and paper. Then the other person went back and forward telling their writing partner the poem a line at a time.

I made it a race to see who can finish the quickest - you're not finished until it is letter and punctuation perfect! (Yes, I know that's a bit rich coming from me, but that's the perks of being the teacher.)

Any way, I'm talking to a kid and turn around to see that almost all of the 'run and tell' partners have whipped out there cell phones and are taking pictures of the poem, with the intention of simply delivering the phone to their 'writing' partner.  Like I said ... Clever little TROLLS!!

Before and On The Way

I thought now was a good half way point to give myself some inspiration and motivation to keep eating healthy.

Here are a couple of nasty pictures of me from before I went to America:

 This photo was taken at Christmas about a month before I went to the US.

And this nastiness was from the last school camp I ran in 2008.

All I can say is THANK GOD for the changes He has made in me. Left to my own devices there is no way I could have stayed on any diet for so long. But, He has healed the pressures in my mind that caused me to live in such an unhealthy way and has taught me that healthy eating is a lifestyle not just a diet.

This is me now at half way, I've lost somewhere near 100 pounds - not really sure, scales are hard to come by here in Korea.

With some students a couple of months back.

Yes that is McDonald's we are at - it is the only place that is open at that time in the morning. And I've only been about 4 times since I've been in Korea. Feeling the need to justify myself here ... ;-)

With two of my favourite fellow missionaries.
(I have lots of favourites!!)











I still have a long long way to go, but God is good and I will get there. It is interesting, looking at these photo's makes it more real. When I look in the mirror I still see the fat girl, the one who wants to be slim and beautiful but doesn't think she'll ever get there. But the photos side by side like this show her that this goal is obtainable - well the slim part any way, and I'll gladly settle for slim and healthy.

The other night I was coming home from Costco wishing I had remembered at the check out that I have to carry home everything I buy on my back, and that I had not bought quite so much stuff. And I suddenly realised as my knees threatened to give way that I used to carry more weight that that every second of every day. I have no idea how I did it!