Morning Cuppas With Glenys

Guard your thoughts

We are always self talking.. and what we entertain in our head shapes us and becomes actions. So it's crucial that we learn to recognise God's Voice as opposed to Satan's Voice.

I wish I knew God earlier than I did in my life because for the first 3 decades of my life, I was buffeted about by listening to the devil's voice.

Knowing now that God loves me and constantly is with me and wants me to live a peaceful life, I realise that I wasted so many years in misery, doubt and self-hatred.

As it says in the meme, God is a God of love and order. If the voice you are hearing doesn't sound like the encouragement from God, then they are not from Him.

Remember, God loves you. He is for you. He will guide you. He has your back. Hear a verse that gave me hope over a very sad chapter of my life. " For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Guard your thoughts as they will direct your life. © Glenys Robyn Hicks

We are so grateful!

We are so happy to be celebrating our silver anniversary today.

It's been the best 25 years of our life and we are very grateful that the LORD arranged our chance meeting with a very happy ending..

Today is not the day!

Have you ever looked forward to something so much that you inadvertently wish your life away? You find yourself wishing that it would happen today and it almost becomes an obsession.

You find your thoughts are racing with envisioning how it will be and how you will feel and impatience becomes the order of the day.

Often we find that we can't really focus on the job at hand for the day as we daydream and plan. Our motivation can dwindle as well as our peace.

I have been like that, and now that I am a woman of a certain age, I realise that all my pining and planning and energy has actually robbed me of living in the moment.

It is at times like that that I have to bring my thoughts to bear on what needs to be done now. It takes time to train yourself, but it is the only way to actually live productively whilst you wait.

There's nothing wrong with joyful anticipation, and our life would be pretty dreary without something to look forward to, but we must not let it rob us of the joy of today.

I have learned to allow myself some time to dwell on the whatever I am looking forward to and than to bring it under control by telling myself, "yes, when this happens, it will be amazing! I can hardly wait! but today, you must focus on the here and now and live in the moment."

One thing I have found in 70 years of life is that it will come soon enough and I cannot afford to wish my life away. So I open the box of dreams, visualise it, look forward to it- and close the box.

Then I tell myself, "yes, that's so exciting and God willing, it's going to come to pass, but today is not the day!" It's nice to feel the peace and calm in my heart once again, whilst looking forward to that day- and God willing, it's going to be beautiful!

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Poppycock!

We gave such a lot happening today in this world that is frightening. It's no use trying to pretend that we are not at all concerned about what's happening: we would be fools not to be concerned about it.

I won't lie and pretend that I haven't been fearful, but I make myself remember God's promises to be with us no matter what, and I can bring the fear into the captivity of Christ.

We must cling to God and His promises if we are to have any peace about world events. We have to run to Him and not from Him.

Some people feel that if a Christian is afraid that they are not truly saved. That is a lie from Hell. It is just another way that the enemy gets to us when we are down. God does not turn away from us if we feel fear. He wants us to run to Him. He's a loving Father.

In running to Him, we will be comforted and have peace and that is something the evil one does not want. Those who judge the fearful Christian by saying they are not saved because of being afraid are doing the evil one's bidding: causing defeat, misery and false guilt.

The Word says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd.

And our Good Shepherd laid down His life to save us. He's not going to turn us away because we are afraid.

To suggest that a moment of fearfulness means we are not saved is dangerous. It denies our humanity. It presumes to judge. It spreads falsehood. It negates the work of God. It upholds the work of Satan. It seeks to nullify the Blood of Christ.

I am sure that God would approve of my judgement of this false teaching by using one word to describe it: poppycock!

© Glenys Robyn Hicks

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23

Make peace a priority

As we grow older, we often find we cannot handle stress as well as we did when we were young.

These days, I find that a peaceful home and life is of utmost importance, especially as I deal with chronic illness and pain daily.

I strive to ensure my home is peaceful and I diligently seek to eliminate things and people that cause me stress. Your mental health will thank you!

Let us try to make our homes a sanctuary from the world's trouble and mayhem. So let us deck the halls of our home and heart...

Let us make sure we keep our homes clean and aired.
Let us try to stay to a routine that gives us time to teach our children.
Let us remember that our children will be picking up and hearing fearful information, so let us be particularly loving with them.
Let us make meals that not only fill our family's stomach, but nourish them. Give them something to look forward to at meal times.
Let us be loving with our husband- chances are he has worries about employment and like you, is concerned about how to stretch the finances and keep the roof over your head and food on the table.
Let us try to avoid speaking constantly about the ills of this current state of the world in front of the children. They may be young, but they will take in a lot of fear. If the parents are afraid, then for them, it is the end of the world.
Let us limit watching the news as this is bound to effect everyone. Limit news to finding out directly what you need to know and turn it off.
Let us watch uplifting videos, especially with our children and let's play with them. Make a cubby house and let your children be the Mum and you the child. Use your imagination and delight them.
Let us put our little ones into the bath and sit alongside them, singing songs and telling stories and blowing bubbles with them.
Let us have a sense of calm and peace in our home, for everyone to enjoy.
Let us be particularly attentive and available to our spouse and fan the flames of romance. It works wonders for a marriage.
Let us sit at table and teach the little ones etiquette, and have the table set nicely to make it a time of pleasure and unity.
Let us continue with a daily nightly bedtime routine for the children and keep regular sleeping hours.
Let us pray with our children at night as they go to bed, allowing them to know that God loves them, watches out for them and calls all the stars by name. Invite discussion of any worries so that they can be reassured and sleep better.
Let us keep up with our own appearance and hygiene, for that will make us feel more like we can cope.
Let us use the fine crockery, tableware, cloth serviettes and silver utensils. Drag out the best linen and softest towels and celebrate home and family.
Let us remember to pray for others, particularly for those for whom isolation means domestic violence. Have this link on hand for help if you or someone you know needs protection and advice.
Let us remember to keep close to the LORD Who has gone to prepare a place for us, and is coming to take us Home with Him soon.

Peace is the first casualty of stress. Make peace a priority in your life and home.

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: “ In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

May God bring one to you!

Over the years, I have been in hospital countless times and I can say that it's nurses who are dedicated to their profession who have made my stays bearable.

I have had many surgeries and illnesses and by far the most of my admissions were for a spinal condition called Sheurman's Disease. I was in traction for two weeks at a time and that happened about every 3 months. It was such a trying time.

Unable to sit up, I depended upon the nurses for everything. Bathing, eating, toileting. It was such a drag. But even so, that drag would have been so much worse if it weren't for the good nurses who attended me.

I got to know those who were true nurses and those who were just in it for the money. The true nurses were compassionate, kind and helpful, whereas the others would just plonk my tray in front of me and leave it until a caring nurse would notice it was untouched and come and help me.

Asking for a bedpan was a guage for this as the uncaring nurse would tut because I had emptied my bladder so many times already and she had better things to do... but Florence Nightingale would smile and breeze through it and leave me feeling relaxed instead of tense.

Bathing was another time the true nurse came to the fore... removing my traction- 7lb water bags on each leg.... no grumbling and her only tuts were seeing the blisters under the adhesive strapping that held them on my legs.

Seeing the blisters bursting and leaving raw skin, she took great pains to clean them and after helping me wash in bed, she doctored them and used crepe bandaging for the traction...

I commented that it didnt sting like the last time the other nurse dressed them with pure undiluted methylated spirits, and after hearing this she spluttered and blew up... exiting the ward to address the nurse who was in it for the money about proper treatment of blisters and the need to check on them. She was disgusted with that nurse and even told her so.

Once again it was easy to tell the dedicated nurses from the opportunistic ones... I was grateful for that kind nurse and I told her so. Her response was typical of a kind heart for she told me it was difficult enough for me to endure without developing blisters that kept on being covered again with the same adhesive that had caused the damage in the first place.

I have heard people say of kind nurses that they are angels, and I believe a lot of them by expressing kindness and compassion, emulate them, for they exude the fruit of the Spirit.

So today, if any kind nurses read this, I would like to thank you for making such a dark time in my life (many times over), more bearable. I am grateful and pray there are many more like you. My prayer is should you need help in hospital, that God brings a caring nurse to you.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 1:2

When your closed eyes reopen, where will they be?

In life, we don't have a say how we were born, or who our parents are, but in death, we do have a say. Either we will be in Heaven or hell. Either our Father will be God or the devil.

Based on how we want to live forever, and the decision we make to that end, we have a say- a very important choice of whom we will serve.

We have to make that choice- either we serve God and live with Him or we choose Satan and suffer with Him forever. Make the choice to love God and live for Him.

And remember, your indecision and silence means you remain in your sin, a child of the devil. You cant be half-Christian... Make the choice to be a Christian today. The end of your life here demands a choice. Get saved today.

When your closed eyes reopen, where will they be?

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: John 1:25

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

Today is the Day of Salvation.

It makes sense that the Bride of Christ will not suffer even a nano second of the Tribulation. We are the Body of Christ. It makes no sense to believe that God's wrath would include His Son Who is God....

Jesus took all the wrath on Himself once and for all... in our place. No man hates his own body but cherishes it... how much more would God cherish the Body of Christ in His Bride?

It makes no sense, knowing what we do about the Nature of God, that He would punish us along with the unbelieving and unsaved when we have devoted our life and service to Him in faith and imputed righteousness?

To my mind, to believe that we will be here for the Great Tribulation negates the whole gospel... we are not destined for wrath for we have been saved... by the Precious Blood and the Love of our Saviour for us.

I am getting impatient listening to the rubbish about us being here to endure punishment when what is happening in the Tribulation has nothing to do with us... it is the Time of Jacob's trouble. I simply don't believe that our faith is in vain as God never lies...

If you want to be with Christ for eternity, click here on how to get saved and what it means...

We believers are getting our inheritance soon. Come with us... today is the Day of Salvation.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?- Numbers 23:19

Backslidden children: God gently leads them back.

As mothers and grandmothers, we often feel like failures when our children stop following the LORD and are backslidden. In spite of training our children and teaching them about the LORD, they seem to be departing from The Way and it can send us into a panic.

I can understand how you can feel a failure, but your children have to make certain decisions for themselves as they grow up. Walking the path of faith is a deeply personal daily choice. We cannot make them believe nor can we save them.

The five children I bought up (from ages 49-43 plus a grandchild now 29) have been brought up in the faith. My own children made a confession of faith when young and were all baptised by immersion. Two of them are now living for the LORD and two of them are backslidden but still consider themselves believers. My first grandchild is agnostic, almost a believer.

All we can do in spite of outward appearances is keep praying for God to change them. We as loving mothers or grandmothers don't know what work God is doing in their heart. We know that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and we have to allow Him to do the work. Often trying to be the Holy Spirit just causes rebellion and hurt feelings and we just get in His way.

There was a stage I thought that none of them believed, but praise God, what was taught them from their youth has resurfaced. So I encourage you not to blame yourself either and to keep praying and believing that your prodigals or backsliders will walk in The Way. God often meets them in the wilderness and gently leads them back on the Straight Path..

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Ezekiel 18:20

Investing in eternal treasures

Many years ago, I studied Anne Ortlund’s Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman with a group of ladies. We discussed Mrs. Ortlund's ideas and agreed that, apart from a lot of good ideas for us being disciplined in our lives, she was off base regarding our priorities as women. For our priorities are clear in God's Word:

God
Husband
Children
Home
Church
Outreach

We decided on this in light of Titus 2 and other verses, and I believe that this is, indeed, the best way to prioritise our lives. Outside ministries are fine, provided that your husband agrees and is supportive of it and that your children and household duties are not neglected. Our biggest ministry is to our own family. We shortchange them when we are neglectful of them due to over commitment and tiredness.

How can it honour the LORD for us to give all our energy to others when our marriages may suffer and our children run wild? We end up giving the first fruits of our energy and commitment to others. I believe that we should see any form of ministry outside the home as secondary to the ministry of Mother and Wife. If duties are in order at home and your husband is not feeling neglected, then I believe you can engage in outside ministry with a happy heart.

Many women do not see the importance of their role as Mother and Wife and feel frustrated in not being able to participate in outside ministry. God has placed us in a ministry precisely because we are wives and/or mothers. We don't have to be discontented and looking for other ministries...we have our calling already.

I think placing priorities outside the biblical order jeopardises our happiness in our homes and families, and you can believe me, even service in ministry can be a lonely experience if you have lost those closest to you. When you put God's priorities in order, He is being served first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. He is all in all and in everything you do.

We need to invest more time in our marriages and families, not less, and to God will be all the glory when we raise godly children--future warriors for the LORD and bearers of His name.

Enjoy your calling, ladies; you are investing in eternal treasures.

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:15-17

I'll just leave this here

Most nights I don't remember my dreams unless they are nightmares. But last night I dreamt that the Rapture was imminent and I was approaching strangers, asking them if they knew Jesus as their Saviour.

It wasn't scary by any means, but I felt all the angst, as I desperately tried to present the Good News of salvation to people. The urgency was intense.

I woke up hyperventilating and took a trip to the bathroom. When I returned to bed, I was sure that I wouldn't dream about it again. But I did.

The second time was more urgent than the first time, and I was rapidly presenting the path of salvation to someone and was desperate that they be saved.

When I woke from the second dream, I prayed and asked the LORD what did all this mean and if it meant something that I needed to do, then let me know and I would do it.

It was no mistake that I got a link to a You Tube vlog of the imminence of the Rapture and all the prophecies that are being fulfilled daily now. Time is short.

I had my answer- and so, to whoever is sitting on the fence, get saved now. You do not want to spend eternity in hell and Jesus is the only way of salvation.

Because of the intensity and realism of the dream, I feel compelled to reach out and talk to you. You need to be saved because there isn't much time. Jesus is coming back for His church- the believers.

The world is going to be in a horrible state after this and you do not want to be left behind. God loves you- all of you who are still on the fence. I don't know you, but He does. He wants you to trust Him.

Whoever is sitting thinking about the future, know that the future is Hell if you are unsaved, but eternal life and joy in Christ for those who are saved-and you need to make a decision to trust Him and get saved now. The Age of Grace is nearly over.

Jesus knows who you are and you know where you stand in this matter. I have heeded my dream and done as I must. I'll just leave this here.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: John 1:25