Category Archives: Reflections

Time passes

13 Saturday Dec 2025

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It’s been a while since I added any posts. I’ve had health issues over the past couple of years which have clipped my wings considerably. It has been an interesting journey. I’m glad to say, I think I’m through the worst of it.

Have just recently been checking some of my websites and found that my links to miscellaneous Amazon books were no longer working. Sigh… they changed their system at some point of time. If they let us know then I guess I missed it. I’ve just spent considerable time updating my very first website (bhojli.com). It took forever. All done now. Phew!

It got me thinking. Everything changes as time goes by, supposedly for improvement. This may be true for some things… but sometimes I wonder if the change was really necessary. Anyway, this has me thinking about what is unchanging, stable and sure in our lives. Jesus is, that’s for sure. During my months of unwellness I often felt encouragement from Jesus that he was still with me, he hadn’t changed, he still loved me and always would. It really helped. And, for this I am most thankful.

I’ve checked this website and updated links that didn’t work. Hopefully, there’s more here to encourage and stimulate you for all Jesus has for you in your life.

Blessings this Christmas. Jesus is real. He came, he lived, he died. And, he rose again! He hasn’t changed. His purposes for us are still the same… to save, to heal, to restore, to make us into the people he fully intends for us to become. Wow!

God’s Great Love and Mercy

29 Sunday Jul 2018

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We have such a merciful heavenly Father! It’s hard to believe that he still loves us when we sin. It’s hard to believe that he really cares when we go off on our own way. It’s hard to take in that he loves us no matter what. It’s hard to comprehend how he knows every single thing that is going on in the whole universe… that’s everything to do with every star and planet, everything to do with every black hole and whatever else is out there, everything to do with absolutely everything on this earth–us humans and our thoughts and actions, the birds and animals, all of nature itself (remember he knows about every sparrow that falls to the ground). I cannot keep track of anything much, yet he sees it all, knows it all intimately, and loves all he has made.
What a thought! He loves all he has made… even the caterpillar that snacks on my vegies! He takes delight in his creation… and I suspect is longing for us to be able to enter into the beauty of all he has created.
I am so little, so small in my understanding and appreciation of God, and yet he is not daunted by my wayward ways. His love and patience with me covers the many years since I became a Christian, and even longer because he planted the seed in my heart and into my family line. Oh, that we would turn to Jesus and find the life he’s intended for us.

Father Heart of God

01 Sunday Oct 2017

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Back in 2003 I was thinking about God as Father. I was particularly struck by what Jesus said of his own relationship with Father God all through the gospel of John. It seems like it would be good to come back to what I wrote all those years ago. May Father God bless and encourage you as you read and think about God as your own heavenly Father.
We need to experience God’s father heart towards us. What we know of a father’s heart is pretty pitiful. For some it’s as a tyrant who demands unquestioning obedience and who uses physical force or verbal abuse to achieve that obedience. For some it’s as a slave driver who requires “work” to pay one’s way. For some it’s like a school teacher requiring perfect scores. For others though there may be a physical presence, the father is emotionally absent. For many there is no father because of death, divorce, or other circumstance causing separation of the family.
Our experience of our own fathers’ hearts becomes our view of God’s father heart so that our sense his heart may be one or more of the following:

He’s a tyrant waiting for me to put one foot out of place
He’s violent and vengeful
He’s distant and disinterested
He’s unapproachable
He doesn’t listen
He only pays attention if I get all my ducks in a row
He doesn’t care about me or what I feel
He won’t help me, I have to figure it out myself
He doesn’t like me (because I’m ugly, stupid, slow, lazy, fat, careless, a girl, a boy, not like him, whatever)

Here are some scriptures to help you meditate on Father God. God is emotionally present, kind, loving, gentle, and understanding of our limitations. Our minds may know this but our hearts don’t.

  • Psalm 103:13, 14 says, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust.”
  • Isaiah 9:6 “Mighty God, everlasting father …”
  • Matthew 6:9 “Our Father in heaven may your name be honored …”
  • *John 10:30 “The Father and I are one …” Look at Jesus to get a view of the father heart of God.
  • Romans 8:15 “Father dear Father …”
  • Hebrews 1:5 “Today I have become your Father …”
  • Ephesians 4:6 “Only one God and Father …”

Life’s Ups and Downs

18 Monday Sep 2017

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Julian of Norwich’s book “Revelations of Divine Love” has had a big impact on my life as I’ve read of her experiences with God during my devotional times. I was particularly struck by what she said as a result of the seventh revelation she received from God.

Julian talks about her experience of being spiritually/emotionally up and down; one minute feeling God’s comfort and rest and great sustaining spiritual joy, the next feeling as though “turned away, left all alone, deeply distressed and tired of my life … there was no comfort or calm for me … only faith hope and love, and I did not feel these, I only believed they were true.” She experienced this back and forth around twenty times. She came to understand that “God wants us to know that he keeps us safe in bad and good times alike.”

So often when we feel blue, discouraged, depressed, alone and cut off from God we assume we have sinned. However, sin is not always the cause as Julian realised. She says she’d not had time between the good and bad times to actually sin. On the other hand, she realised she didn’t deserve the feelings of joy either. God had freely given what he willed, sometimes joy and sometimes sorrow.

I know for myself that when I feel great joy and encouragement in my life and in God that there’s sometimes a teeny sense that I must deserve it in some way, that somehow I’ve been “good” and it’s a reward. By the same token, when my life feels joyless and I’m discouraged, or God feels a long way away and there isn’t much comfort or encouragement around I so often and quickly assume God has abandoned me and that I must have been “bad”, that I must have sinned or have some sinful attitude. What I’m coming to understand more and more from all this is that my feelings aren’t the measure of my relationship with God, and that joy or sorrow are opportunities to keep on trusting him.

(Mother Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. (ed by Halcyon Backhouse with Rhona Pipe.) London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1987. pp34-5)

Christmas thot

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

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Christmas is just around the corner and it’s a good time to pause and look back over the year that is rapidly drawing to a close.

We’ve seen world dramas with passenger planes being shot down, the continuing rise of ISL with their murderous hatred of Christians, Jews and the West in general, of terrorist attacks, of hostage situations, plus the many natural disasters occurring in various quarters of the globe. It’s all been incredible. Add to the pot the media’s graphic and incessant reporting of such events with a resultant stirring of fear. This also is incredible to behold.

We are celebrating Jesus’ first coming to our world with all “fairy floss” of the season. However, my question now is, is Jesus’ return imminent? I don’t know but it gives one pause to ponder the possibility.

My reading recently reminded me of God’s take on all things:

“God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it.” (Heb 1:2b) and “[Jesus] sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command (1:3b).

So, no matter what happens – when or where or who or how – God has it in hand and under his control. The universe is sustained by the mighty power of Jesus!

Now Christmas is here, the time to joyfully and truly celebrate Jesus. May you experience something of the wonder of God sending his Son, Jesus, to this world – and, the why of it.

God’s good creation

28 Thursday Feb 2013

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When God had completed his wonderful creation he said it was very good. I can easily imagine him sitting back in his easy chair, feet up and with his hands clasped behind his head and a big smile on his face. Fanciful? Maybe. But that’s my sense of what his comment meant.

It says in Genesis:

“And it was very good.”  Genesis 1:31 NIV

Now, today, God still views his creation in the same way. No matter that we’ve made a mess of his gorgeous world. And, no matter that we’ve made a huge mess of our own lives.

Bear in mind, God knew the specific purpose you were born to fulfil, so He provided all the gifts you’d need, including the environment required to put it all together. Then He looked at you and said, “Very good.” Can you say that too?

 

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Self-Control

30 Saturday Jun 2012

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“A person without self-control is as defenceless as a city with broken-down walls.” Proverbs 25:28

Lack of self-control makes us vulnerable to attack. We are more vulnerable to temptation, to doing or saying things we will regret, to being swayed by others’ opinions and pressures.

There is a difference between self-control and being in control. Self-control is a healthy discipline that helps us be mindful of what is appropriate behaviour and speech. Being in control is likely the result of a choice (or vow) arising from a wound (or some unpleasant or painful experience) that gives us the idea that we must control the circumstances of our lives where we had been wounded; and it’s likely that other areas of our lives may be totally out of control and undisciplined.

Something to think about…

 

No matter the mess, God works for good!

26 Thursday Apr 2012

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“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. He appointed them to be saved in keeping with his purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV

When it seems like the world’s gone mad, don’t forget “God existed before anything else… and He holds all creation together.” (Colossians 1:17 NLT). When worry whispers, “God doesn’t know what you need!”, remember God promised to “meet all your needs”. (Philippians 4:19 NIV)

[from a friend]

What the locusts ate…

21 Saturday Apr 2012

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A thought from a friend:

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten….” Joel 2:25 NIV

For everything you’ve loved or lost, God has something else. For everything that’s been stolen from you, God has something else. The situation you are in right now is not the end of the story; God wants to write a new chapter. – He’s not through with you!

God’s good in life’s experiences

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

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“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV

What we consider wasted experiences can become experiences in wisdom – when we decide to learn from them! God in His wisdom knows that we need the challenge of certain situations to mature and stretch us.

[from a friend]

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