Morning Cuppas With Glenys

True joy in the moment!

Physically, I feel my full 67 years of age. Emotionally, I am mature and steady, and I am grateful for that after years of a stressful life culminating in PTSD.

Spiritually, I am at peace. It finally has clicked that God actually loves me. Until the last 23 years with Chris, I was made to feel unloveable, and I bought the Liar's lies...

Sure, I have regrets and have done some things in my life that I am most ashamed of, but in realising that God really loves me, I have fallen in love with Him. At last I feel forgiven and acceptable. Such peace!

I am happy in my own skin, able to forgive easily, and finding joy in everyday things. I feel like my outside man is breaking down, but my inner being is becoming more alive and well...

I don't worry so much about external things these days, but am concentrating on becoming a quiet and gentle soul. It sometimes takes a lot of work, but it's getting easier as I age.

I do find it hard when I am called an old lady: I don't see myself as old yet. Maybe I am by the world's standards. Those who call me an old lady are only in their early thirties: I probably thought those of my age were old at that age too...

Age is something we have to accept and we can and should be grateful for each and every year that we live: life is a gift.

Every time I comb my hair and see the grey, every wrinkle on my face, even my aching arms and neck, tell me that I am aging- but I am grateful to God for the years that have brought me to this place: the joy of being in the moment!

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Picture is of Helen Mirren

Eternally His. Instantly.

I have had some times in my life where I have thought I would die. Surgeries for my heart, illnesses wherein I couldn't breathe, and an incorrect diagnosis of a terminal illness have seen me glimpsing death and had me question if I am ready to be with the LORD.

In facing death a few times, I have experienced immense peace in knowing that Christ has me in the Palm of His Hand and that should He call me Home to Him, that it would be instantaneous.

Alive or not, we are His. We belong to the LORD Who also numbers our days. It is a great comfort to remember that when my health continues to fail.

I am afraid of the manner in which I will die, but not of death per se. I have been the LORD's since before my birth and I will be even after my last breath.

His sacrifice has paved the way for us to not be afraid of Hell or with dying. We are forever His as soon as we accept Him as LORD and Saviour.

So in keeping with that, we do not have to fear world events either as we await for Jesus to come back for us. The Rapture will be instantaneous, as will be our death should He take us Home with Him through that means.

Let us not give in to fear with current events and pandemics, but live in peace and security. That security and peaceful assurance is yours too, if you accept Christ as your Saviour.

We are loved by God and are His Children forever. Eternally His. Instantly.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke 23:42-43

We are His faithful Bride!

So much is happening worldwide right now with nearly every country impacted with the Corona Virus.

Most countries are being put under lockdown but that doesn't preclude us from reaching out to each other via the internet and phone.

It is no light thing to say that even unbelievers are saying the world is coming to an end: it certainly is a time of darkness and fear.

It hasn't taken God by surprise and He hasn't kept it secret that in the end times before He comes for us, His Church, His Bride, that troublesome times will come.

We have church meetings cancelled as well as secular events in an attempt to curtail the spread of this virus. It is as if Satan wants to stop the Word of God being preached and of people being within ear shot if it is.

What he forgets is that WE Christians are the Church. It's not a building or hall. It's every true believer. His Holy Spirit dwells in us and there is no way God's Word will be silenced.

Let us pray for boldness and anointing to preach and speak the Word. How can we from home? you ask. By posting uplifting pictures with scripture. By blogging about God if you blog. By posting of Christ in your Face Book groups.

Let us be Christ's Hands and Mouth and turn this evil pandemic into the biggest opportunity in recent times of reaching the lost for Jesus!

Make no mistake: we are in the end times and the next event on the Christian calendar is the Rapture! We want to take as many as possible with us, but it depends on us as Christ's Church and Bride to continue to live fearless lives and preach the Word. We are not the Holy Spirit, but we can have people hear the Word that plants the seed for the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts.

Rise up, both normal and chronically ill believers and proclaim in any way you can that Jesus is coming soon. We may be ill, but we are faithful! A faithful Bride and Church of Jesus!

He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Ephesians 5:23-30

Sometimes healing's in the meds

There was a time when I fought taking medicines. It was at a time when the sermons were about what you say is what you get. Claiming your healing in Jesus' Name and getting healed: if you didn't, you lacked the faith to make it so. I now believe that this is unbalanced teaching and do not follow it. However, at the time it made me feel very guilty about taking my medicine.

I do believe that God heals today. And I do believe that faith can make you well. But I have lived long enough with chronic illness to know that this doesn't happen all the time and that most times our prayer should be "if it is Thy will, please heal me!" Faith teachings often miss the fact that God is God! His Will may not be an immediate healing...I don't know why: I just know that I must accept my health as being in His Will. To struggle against this is to make yourself worse through faulty and negative thinking. We are called to walk in faith, not by sight.

In those years, I felt extremely guilty because I suffered from depression that was caused by a chemical imbalance. I tried many times to come off my tablets, usually after a healing crusade, and I fell- straight into the Pit of Despair. This fall often required more medication than before to get me to the place of health I was in when I thought I had been healed. And it took many many weeks of feeling awful before they kicked in again. Not a good place to be.

As I grew in my faith and relinquished my health to the LORD, I acquired many more medications. All of them are vitally important to keep my heart functioning, my blood pressure normal, my blood thin, my cholesterol down, to prevent my kidneys from making kidney stones and to regulate my under active thyroid. Not to mention other things to keep my eyes from drying out and to minimise the pain of fibromyalgia and back problems and to reduce the gastric acid that some medications cause. And of course, the anti-depressants to normalise my neuro-transmitters.

Once I would have held these tablets in my hand and fought taking them. Not any more. I now adopt a spirit of gratitude as I take my medications, for without them I would not be alive for very long. I feel that my medications are a gift from God to allow me to love and serve Him a little longer here and now. Life is after all, God's Will and I am grateful for each new day.

I believe that God gave man the ability to make medications and that ensuring a better quality of life is in God's Will. For Christ came to give us abundant life. Laying in a sick bed with angina and pain is not an abundant life.

I would urge you to have a rethink about your medicines if you have been told that they aren't in God's Will for you. Try to adopt a glad and grateful attitude as you take them. Rejoice that you live in a place in the world where they are available and be glad. Joy and life are in the Will of God, or else why would we see Christ healing many ill and afflicted people? He told us He came to do the Will of His Father!

May you be well, no matter what it takes and may we bless the LORD together for His goodness to us!

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38

When husbands lose their jobs

It won't come as a surprise to my regular readers to know I fully support the so-called "traditional" roles of man and wife. Tradition, of course, is the less important part in this; traditions might change, while God's plan for us never does, and He was the one to command Adam to work in the sweat of his brow, and Eve to bear children. So of course it's natural for the woman to take care of the nest and the family.

But of course, we all know things might not go according to our initial plan. Husbands may fall ill, lose their jobs, strike up a bad financial bargain, or all of the above. A woman who married someone financially stable might feel it's unfair if the situation changes unexpectedly, though certainly, no one can guarantee it won't happen.

I firmly believe this role reversal, when the wife becomes the main breadwinner, is not really a solution; it's unhealthy. Men were not made to be cooped up inside the house and women were not made to be far from their homes and families. It's easy to feel desperate when a "traditional" family is suddenly thrust into such a situation.

Here we have another example at how feminism did a huge disservice to women. In the past, if a family was going through a financial crisis, the wife was expected to be frugal, and perhaps do some work temporarily, preferably from home. Now, we are expected to jump into a "career", as if that will be a solution to all our problems, as if there aren't enough couples with two incomes who are up to their ears in debt because they don't know how to handle their finances wisely.

I take issue, however, with some attitudes expressed in that article I linked to. Like, for example, losing respect for a husband who lost his job. Many men lose their jobs through no fault of their own; they are likely to sink into depression as it is, when unemployment lasts for a while. The last thing that would encourage and motivate them would be vibes of disrespect and scorn coming from their wives. It becomes an evil circle: a man is unemployed, his wife treats him like a useless loser, and he feels like one, which prevents him to take off again in the working world.

It's easy to become frustrated and tell an unemployed husband, "you've failed your part, I'm going out there to do your job because you're inadequate." But wouldn't it be wiser to trust God and trust this husband he gave you, and tell him you know he is doing his best? Wouldn't it be wiser to support and motivate him, and tell him you fully trust his abilities, and perhaps help him look for a job, and motivate him to take advantage of his time of unemployment to learn useful skills? I truly believe it would pay off in the long run.

I understand, of course, that there are also situations when the wife is as supportive and encouraging as can be and it doesn't help. We don't live in a perfect world and some men are lazy and irresponsible. But I honestly believe that most men want to take care of their families and be good husbands and fathers.

As you know I'm not speaking only theoretically. My husband is currently looking for a job, and some tell me I should invest in my career instead, such as, for example, go ahead and start studying for a Master's degree. I do believe this attitude is not only short-sighted, it would convey that I secretly believe I can do my husband's job better than he could. And in the long run, I think I would pay for it dearly, especially when more children (God willing) come along and I'm stuck with a "career" I can't realistically handle.

by Mrs Anna T of Domestic Felicity

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee....And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; Genesis 3:16-17

Staying home with impunity

impunity. If doing something usually results in punishment, but you do it with impunity, you will not be punished for the deed. ... The noun, impunity, comes from the Latin roots im- ("not") plus poena ("punishment"), a root which has also produced the word pain. Impunity, then, is the freedom from punishment or pain.

So, most of us have had to stay home because of the Corona Virus. Homemaking, home cooked meals, bread making and other homemaking skills have come to the fore and we have been forced to reconnect with our family. Depending on the state of the marriage, most marriages have been reenergised as well.

Homeschooling here in Australia has seen a lot of mothers scratching their heads as they tried to come to terms with new teaching methods since they were at school. Homeschooling and running a home plus often tending to younger children is looked at with new respect for not only teachers, but homeschooling mothers. It is good, but often difficult.

Mothers who work outside the home are encouraged to work from home if at all possible, and this has presented them with more problems. Childcare, domestic duties and so on cannot be compartmentalised: the poor working mother has suddenly got to juggle it all..

It is quite ironic that once we stay at home wives and mothers were looked down upon, but now are held in esteem because we do stay home. Not for the first time, too, mothers who work outside the home are remembering how much work they did actually do at home before they worked in outside employment. And according to statistics, they are often quite prepared to stay home if it were possible...

Staying home at the moment with quarantine in place is wearing a bit thin- especially for those folks whose job has ceased due to infection worries, or whose business has failed for the same reason. It is increasingly harder to find money to keep bread and butter on the table.

In an effort to stop the spread of Rona, the powers that be have decided that staying at home is the new vogue and that those who don't face fines and/or prison..

This new development has seen women encouraged to stay home instead of being looked down upon as a non productive member of society. Suddenly we are hailed as heroes...

Perhaps when Rona has run its' course and workplaces open again, we will look back and fondly remember the time when housewives were appreciated and we were staying at home with impunity.

Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past. Isaiah 26:20

It's not every day...

Over the last thirty years I have suffered from over fifty bi-lateral kidney stones. Sometimes after waiting agonising weeks, they would pass, but five times I required surgery to remove them. At one time, I had surgery twice in a month. It is the most painful of pains and surgery.

At each occasion, no one seemed interested in finding out why I made them, and didn't send them off to be analysed. I was miserable and lived in fear of the onset of back pain which signalled a stone was coming. Of course, being in traction for my back two weeks at a time didn't help matters. I always seemed to get a stone after being in hospital.

Fed up, after passing a charming 6mm jagged stone, I changed doctors and at last I found one who was curious to know why I kept making them. He kept the stone I showed him and sent it off for analysis. But better yet, he sent me to see a kidney specialist who was at the time associated with our local hospital in Dandenong.

The renal specialist was Margot McIver, a very approachable older lady, who became a pioneer in renal medicine in Australia. Margot spent a lot of the consultation questioning me about my health. She was interested that I had an identical twin. Then she noticed my maiden name, her interest was piqued.

Chalkley was a name that rang a bell with her. In her training days at the Queen Victoria Hospital Melbourne, she was treating my mother during our birth. Mum had pre-eclampsia and uterine inertia plus a bad kidney infection. She remembered our hurried delivery by high forceps- we were lying transverse and were both breech. She said she was in the observation gallery for trainee doctors and remembered it well. She said our birth was complicated and she learned a lot from her teacher doctor.

Margot was the only doctor ever to offer condolences for the still born twin girls I had given birth to in 1969 and to venture an opinion on the cause of their death in utero. Her opinion was an untreated kidney infection took their lives. Very common in multiple pregnancies, she said.

She had me do many blood tests and 24 hour samples of urine and later went on to diagnose me with calcium oxylate stones in uric acid. I was given allopurinol to reduce the uric acid in my blood and so give the calcium oxylate nothing to bind with. I have had no stones since taking it....

I was sad to read of her death in Queensland in 2012 at age 78 . She would have been the same age as my mother...

Margot will always be remembered for her compassionate and caring manner as well as medical expertise. I was amazed that I got to meet the doctor who looked after my mother and watched my birth at the training hospital. She touched me lightly on the arm as she said goodbye at my last visit and voiced what I had been thinking, "It was lovely to meet you: who would have thought?... it's not every day...!"

So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12

I couldn't live with myself

I have been grappling with writing what's on my heart lately. As a deep thinker, I ponder daily on what I feel God wants me to write about in this blog. I try to encourage and edify, but I know that sometimes what I speak of upsets some people.

As I looked at myself in the mirror today, I saw a woman whose life is spent mostly on studying the Word of God, praying and blogging in between bouts of chronic illness. It's all I can do now.

Writing's been a passion of mine for the last 30 years after three separate pastors at different services prophesied over me, saying that God has appointed me to be a spokesperson- actually the word was "mouthpiece" for Him throughout the world.

I really took this to heart and started writing Christian personalised verse and self published a book of poetry called "In Spirit And In Truth". It sold at various Christian bookstores, but somehow this didn't seem the way that I was meant to go...

With the advent of the internet, I started blogging and that and writing for various Christian magazines have become my form of service to God. As the blogs and articles circulated, I realised that that was where the "throughout the world" part of the prophecies were coming from...

Apart from obeying God by writing, I realised that I burn with the desire to see the lost being saved and that I do indeed love people. Christian or not. Coloured or not.

As I combed my hair, I realised that I must write more of Christ and His offer of salvation than focus on our many illnesses and the Corona Virus. Times are short.

I know some who read may take offence, but please recall that I do so out of love and nothing personal to gain. I want you to be saved from the imminent wrath of God for people who prefer to live in their sin than to repent and serve God.

This world is getting darker and very soon Jesus will be taking the Church- His Bride, to be with Him. This is known as the Rapture and only believers will go.

My prayer is that you will go with us and not be left on this earth which is going to be hell on earth. I need to say it, before it's too late.

I don't want you to be offended, but saved. God doesn't want anyone to go to Hell, and neither do I. Times are short as I said and we have millenia of prophecies that have come true to uphold this.

One must be saved or born-again to get to Heaven. Jesus is the only way and that choice must be made personally and voluntarily. Either we accept Jesus and go to Heaven, or we go to Hell.

I have written this post for those who as yet aren't born again, because if I didn't warn you, I couldn't live with myself.

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

Don't be afraid to train your children

The scriptures tell us to train up our child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) But how many of us are afraid or unwilling to train our children? We are afraid that we will lose our children's affections if we restrain them- we are afraid to be mothers!

Some of us don't train our children because we are too lazy- it is always easier to just let them go- it takes too much effort to harness them and direct them in the right direction. Some of us do a half-hearted training of our children- because they bug us, we make them toe the line! I suppose that is better than no training at all.

What are the consequences of us not training our children? At the very most rebellious young adults who have no respect for authority- yours or anyone else's. At the very least, young adults who cannot restrain themselves or their moods and who have no respect for property or other people's feelings. Definitely on both counts, we will have bred unhappy young adults.

A lot of mothers are so afraid of harming their children's psyche that they become the child's servant eventually, doting on them and spoiling them until they are insufferable to bear. Mothers, you cannot be your child's best buddy or friend. You have to train your child well and be a mother who is not afraid to enforce her God-given authority as Mother. Your children will respect you for it- they certainly won't respect you for trying to be their friend.

If we don't train our children well we are asking for rottenness to come into their character. A mother who trains and disciplines her children in a loving way will never lose her children's respect or love. Even from early childhood we intuitively know that Mother is our teacher and protector. We may not verbalise it as children but we all know we need a Mother's input in our formative years. However we train our children we can be assured that the results will reach into eternity.

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

'Train up our child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Any age is precious in God's sight.

So my husband, Chris has been in Emergency at our local hospital a few days ago. Nothing major, just getting his insulin sorted. A registrar who was looking after him popped her head in and asked him a question that floored us.

"In light of your age, we need to know if something happened to you, God forbid, do you want us to perform CPR? Yes? well then I need to inform you of possible side effects of that!.... if your heart stops and we have to do CPR, there's a possibility that you could have fractured ribs or sternum. If your brain has been starved of oxygen for any length of time, you could end up a vegetable..." "At which point, you can then pull the plug!" I interjected.... "Very well, that has been noted!" and then she exited with her paperwork that Chris had signed....

We just looked at each other with open mouths, quite incredulous at what she implied. "In light of your age.." Chris is 69 nearly 70, which is certainly not that old in my book. The implications were that as we are closer to 70 than 60, we are ready to fall off our perch and are not considered of enough value to fight to save.

With recent hospitalisations of my family- aged 67 and over- the reports have been that compassion is lacking. There is a distinct lack of compassionate care which is starkly obvious when compared to past years as a younger patient. Even my (then) 80 year old aunt always said that they let the old ones die. I considered that a gross exaggeration: now I am not so sure.

Our younger generation are being brought up on the idea that the older people in society are a blight on their economy and are easily disposable. Seventy years of age is the cut off point for their tolerance and forbearance. The inference is just go on and die and get it over with!

The government in Australia is phasing in the aged pension only to workers of seventy years of age. In fact, instead of the previous 65 year retirement age, I was made to wait until I was 65.5! Others will have to wait until they are 67 to retire and get a pension: a pension to which they have contributed all their working life. They are aiming to eventually make retirement age 70!

It is interesting that we Australians are considered able to work till 70 but are classified as old and at risk of dying from complications of Corona Virus at over 60! Maybe the young ones would prefer we start dying off at 60? We can't encumber them with more expense or taxing of the health services!

It seems to me that the most vulnerable of society: the unborn and the aged, are getting phased out of their right to live. This just leaves us a window of acceptable longevity from birth to 60 if we are lucky.

There is no delight in a baby's impending birth or compassion for the ill retiree: we are worthless in society and therefore totally disposable.

From the womb to the grave, our worth in the world is based on someone's warped opinion of us. If we don't measure up to standard, we are terminated or encouraged to roll over and die.

Prophecy is unfolding just as foretold: the love of many has grown cold as the love of money has increased. The unborn and aged are precious only in God's sight.

His judgement of us is that we are valuable from conception to death..... Maranatha, Lord Jesus! We are precious in God's sight at any age!

Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:32 and The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness Proverbs 16:31

The stuff dreams are made of

With all that's happening at the moment with the Corona Virus, the events worldwide sometimes make me think I am dreaming and will soon wake up.

But of course I don't wake up because it's real and the world is still coping with stopping Rona spreading further. The dream is more like a nightmare.

I am finding the state of lockdown, infection control and data regarding new cases and deaths, surreal. It's like something one would expect at the end of the world. Pandemic. Fear. Death. Confusion.

With a start, I realise that this may not be the end of the world, but it is prophetic. Pandemics and wars, people growing cold and heartless and thinking just of themselves are indeed prophesised as the beginning of the birth pains.

Birth pains that will grip humanity and shake the world before the coming of the LORD and His Saints for the judgment of unrepentant sinners.

All scripture points towards Jesus receiving His Bride- the Church of believers soon. It's the blessed hope we are told to await eagerly.

Now is the time to be awake- the Rapture is by all accounts, imminent. Jesus is coming for us soon.

And as we look around and see the beginning of the birth pains, we can see that staying here is not so attractive: that would be a nightmare for real.

But looking up and waiting for Jesus to come for us is the end of that awful dream for us as believers: we are not appointed for the wrath of God.

A heavenly mansion awaits us with eternity spent with our LORD. His Word is our promise. The believer's future is bright and full of hope and is the stuff dreams are made of.

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:1-2

So grateful tonight

So I have lit the lamps and drawn our drapes. The air outside is cold but our home is warm. The smell of cooking still hangs in the air: a fragrant reminder of a lovely meal eaten in quiet enjoyment.

We watch the flames of our fire and give in to reflection of the day. It has been a good day. With full tummies and grateful hearts, we hold hands and talk. There is contentment in our hearts and words.

Outside we have people in the front lines of health and security- police, doctors, ambulance workers in essential fields of service that ensure our well being and standard of living are taken care of. They are heroes.

But the peace inside our home is closely guarded as we turn off endless news programs and feeds in social media of conspiracy theories and death tolls and predictions regarding the Corona Virus.

We know they are there, but they are not welcome in our home. Our thoughts are brought into the captivity of Christ. We think only of that which is true and good.

As we prepare to retire soon, we are grateful for electric blankets and soft pillows and even for the little cat who loves to snuggle with her family. So many the world over are living in fear of death from this virus, and many are homeless. We are blessed.

As I hold Chris's hand, I am grateful for the absence of violence in my life, for many are living in a place that isn't safe and this isolation for them is far more than inconvenient: it is dangerous.

We invite the Holy Spirit to fill our home, and I refuse to allow anxiety to weigh my heart and mind down: God has us in His Hand and even if I were to contract Rona, He would do what He wills with me. I am ready to go Home in illness or in the imminent Rapture.

Tonight, when I turn off my bedside lamp to go to sleep, I will say what I say every time before I go to sleep or under the knife in surgery: "Father, into Your Hands I commit my spirit!"

And I will fall asleep knowing that God has all things under control. I am so grateful tonight!

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7