Boldness of faith

It has been a great few weeks being back in England. Believe me, I do miss the warm climate of Jamaica. The privilege of being able to wear slippers and sleeveless tops, and to be able to swim in the sea without putting yourself at risk of hypothermia. And I miss my family and not being able to see my very handsome nephews -for me home is where the heart is. But, God has been blessing me so much since I've been back.

I had a safe trip back. Both my suitcases turned up at Heathrow. I did have a little scare when I arrived in Miami where I was told (in Jamaica) to collect my bags and I didn't see them arrive for over 1 hour! But the people in the baggage collection were very helpful and one of them lead me to an Air Jamaica personnel, who put my concerns to rest when he said that my bags were checked through to Heathrow!

Chris and I are very close to an African church in East Croydon, London. It was the Pastor of the church, Louis Arku of Eagle Christian Ministries who told Chris that he was called to be a pastor. Whenever we attend their church we always go there with great expectation that God will do something! It's not that we don't get blessed in our church in Stapenhill (Immanuel Church), but there is something very special about Eagle Christian Ministries. Their motto is 'Proclaiming Jesus, Touching Lives' and that's exactly what they do. They proclaim the truth of the Bible (undiluted) and we never leave there the same. It'll be 5 years this year that we've been friends with them, and it's encouraging to note in ourselves (Chris and I) that we have changed and we have matured in our faith.

The main thing that I took from being there last week Sunday (14th January) was to be bold in my faith. To recognise that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. And because of that promise, to not be shy about sharing my faith to people, even though they may scoff at it. Jesus faced prosecution during His ministry. There are several accounts in the Bible when they threatened to stone Him for what He was saying. But He kept on going boldly with faith in His Heavenly Father until the end....

I've been meditating on this and God lead me to this Scripture passage - Jeremiah 17:7-8

...blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

I want to stand firm no matter what the year brings trusting and putting my confidence in Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father, so that I will bear good fruit for the sake of the kingdom of God.