This page will always be as the title suggests.  This section will be where I will publish thoughts and testimony, to share from the Bible and encourage.

This month I am intending to publish twice.  Today is my first thought and then I intend to publish on the 14th April which is the week leading up  to Easter weekend.

The first thought I want to post about this month is:

Little from Much - or - So much beauty within.

This all comes from my Amaryllis plant!  The pictures below are of a Amaryllis that I was given in November 2024.  The first picture was when the leaves had finished growing and the flower stem had appeared.  The second picture is when the first trumpet had opened up.  The third picture is when the  three trumpets had opened up with a fourth hidden among them waiting it’s turn to open and bloom.  I have been watching and when I first received it, the leaves were about 6/7 inches high.  The packaging gave me a picture of what to expect.  That gave me an idea of the beauty inside that one bulb.  I must admit I did not read all what it said about the plant, so I was unaware of how big it would get!  As the leaves grew, I thought I might have to try and find somewhere else to put it, especially when I thought what was yet another leaf started to grow.  That turned out to be the flower stem containing the trumpets.  It absolutely fills my kitchen window but it is glorious.

It is amazing how so much can come from one bulb!

This made me think about all that is within us as individuals, so that God has placed in us.  

God tells us in scripture, what when we come to Him and commit our lives to Him we are a new creation.  What we once were is on longer.  We now have the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit within to help us be the person that God always intended we would be.

Scripture tells us about ‘treasure within’.   The treasure of the Holy Spirit to guide us in all the ways of God.  We also have treasure, gifts and talents, that God has placed in each one of us.  These are for the building up of His body, the encouragement and help of fellow believers.  We have natural gifts and talents that if placed in God’s hands can be of even more effect.  As we walk with God, we can find ourselves doing things we never thought we could.  It can often be the case that we can be asked to do something that is out of our ‘comfort zone’ or that we feel does not come naturally, but God is using what little we have, the potential He sees in us.  If it all came too easily we would probably end up relying on our own strength and cutting God out of it all.  If we are using what we have but it grows, develops and get bigger, that’s when we depend on God.

Treasure in earthen vessels is another thought that comes to mind.  With our flaws and failings we can consider perhaps God has not chosen the right person.  God does not make mistakes!

Picture  yourself as the Amaryllis plant.  A bulb with all the potential.  In this case, the bulb relied on me to water it regularly.  If I had not, it would have dried up.  Whatever we have, use it, but let God bring the increase.  Be faithful in the small.  If we want to be the full grown flower right away with all those blooming trumpets, then we are actually missing out.  God is more interested in our character and our faithfulness.  His word tells us that if we are faithful in little, then we will be able to be faithful in much and that is what God wants to see first.  We live in a very instant society - must have it now!  I think also we are a society that has a short attention span and gets bored easily.  Especially if things start to go wrong or are not so easy.  Here is another thing God looks for, commitment.  

Jesus had a few words to say to the Pharisees who did things just to be seen by men.

Believe me, I am not having ‘a pop’ at people who are in big ministries, who are seen.  We probably don’t know, the small, faithful things they have served in for many years.  As God has seen that faithfulness and commitment, then they have been given more.  We also don’t know the heartache and struggles they may have had down the years whilst continuing to serve and most likely still experience.

In v 4, 6 and 7 are a few things that the scriptures says about all these gifts:-

v 4 - different gifts but the same Lord

v 6 - different activities but the same God

v 7 - A manifestation is given to each person for the common good.

There is one giver of all these gifts and they are for the common good.

Distributing to each one individually as He wills: Here is another reason for unity, and a reason against any sense of superiority regarding the gifts. They are distributed not according to the will of man, but as the Spirit of God wills – as He wills.

If the Spirit distributes to each one individually as He wills, why would He choose to give a particular gift at a particular moment? The larger reasons may not be apparent, but the goal of the Holy Spirit’s work is always to glorify Jesus and to build His nature and character in us. The Spirit’s goal is never to amaze or confuse, but to build the fruit of the Spirit, and He will use or not use any gift He thinks right towards that end.