joyancejames

Category: faith

  • Rain Stopper

    The sky was overcast, yet the obstinate sun rays managed to sneak through, continuing the delusion that the downpour wasn’t imminent, although I could hear the thunder rumble at a distance. I was about to leave home to pick up my daughter, Faith from her school as I faced a dilemma whether to risk the rain and take my e-scooter or listen to my wiser wife and take the car.
    Finally, I decided to ride to the school and asked God to hold up the rains for 15 minutes till I reached back.

    The rains obeyed their Creator. (Thank you Elijah for giving us a precedent in rain-stopping prayer).

    We started from school and enjoyed the scenic ride back across a small lake and since there wasn’t any rain, we decided to indulge in some shopping too. But what I mis-calculated was my 15-minute-rain-hold time was over, by the time we stepped out of the shop it was pouring! We managed to have an adventurous ride back where I covered Faith with my huge raincoat like a Batman’s cape (picture a hen covering her chicks). Her father’s cape had kept her dry but I was soaking wet!

    Many times we tend to test the limits of divine favour. We lean on our own understanding even when we know better. Father’s favour cannot become an excuse for our foolishness. Favour doesn’t always equate to protection, it includes correction too. 

    On brighter days – without the cape

    King Solomon’s words to the wise – 

    Proverbs 3:5-12 MSG

    [5-12] Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.

    May the Father’s favour keep us dry, protected & corrected. 😊

    God bless!

  • Holding the Father’s Hands

    Currently, I’m enjoying the phase of my fatherhood where my daughter, Faith, forces me to always hold her hands when we’re outside home (Not sure if boy-dads/moms are as fortunate). I pray that God may spare me the parental phase when the child out grows the desire to hold hands, to be unhindered and free! When Faith holds my hands, she has a sense of security and I’ve a peace of mind that she is with me.
    When walking down the road, from my vantage point (~ 6 feet off the ground) I can see farther, envision any obstacles or difficulties along the way. While I deliberately reduce my stride to accomodate her distractions with the waywide flowers and child-like wonder, I know when to hold her back because a particularly appealing flower, unbeknown  to her grows on a thorn-bush. The childish ambition cries to run ahead in order to finish the walk but fatherly wisdom knows the long walk can’t afford energy expenditure on a sprint!

    Daddy-daughter walks

    The song writer Asaph recalles that even in the midst of his waywardness, he was still held by the hands that created him.
    Psalms 73:23-24 NLT
    [23] Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. [24] You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

    https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.73.23-24.NLT

    To continually be held by Him is to acknowledge that “His way” is better.
    When all our peers say, “I want it that way” (courtesy Backstreet Boys); can we like another modern day Asaph (Forrest Frank) say,
    “Oh Lord, I need You now more than ever
    Would You put my heart back together
    I searched the world ’til my head hurt
    Just to find out Your way’s better”

    I want it “His way”!

    Isaiah 41:10, 13 NLT
    [10] Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
    [13] For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.
    When we walk side-by-side, it is usually my left hand and my daughter’s right hand or vice-versa.
    But here, a beautiful picture emerges, being held by the right hand of Yahweh, signifies His strength, righteousness and victory. In the subsequent verse Isaiah writes that He holds our right hand, implying when our strength is almost spent and we are at the end of our rope, He comes face to face and invites us to rely on His strength and might.

    May we never outgrow the desire to hold and be held by His hands!
    God bless!

  • What The Thigh Bone Taught Me!

    Femur is latin for thigh and os femoris is thigh bone. In current medical terminology the thigh bone is referred to as femur. It is the largest bone in the human body, as long as 1/4th of the standing height!

    Here I’ll attempt to take you through some unique features of femur and what it teaches us. 

    1. As the largest bone in the body, it is also the strongest. It can take upto 30x the body weight before fracturing. 

    The maximum stress it can tolerate in compression is 205MPa (mega pascals) while a tensile force (in order to stretch/bend) of 135 MPa can be tolerated by the femur. (College of Engineering; University of Wisconsin). 

    2. The thigh bone is not uniform in structure, the ends are spongy bone whereas the middle part is cortical, dense part. The ends of the femur are areas with bone marrow and involved in blood cell formation, more significantly in children. 

    3. Bone is one of the few tissues in human body that heals without scar (fibrosis). A fracture heals with bone tissue and after a few months it remodels to become normal bone again. 

    4. Although the length of femur stops growing in the teenage years but it’s micro-structure is constantly evolving. Bone is involved in metabolism, calcium and phosphorus keep getting deposited and reabsorbed from the bone; the bone mass and density changes according to multiple factors including age.

    Holding a Femur, for size comparision. Specimen courtesy: Anatomist wifey.

    The femur with its intricately marvellous structure and function is an unprecedented engineering marvel! Such strong, life giving (blood forming), self healing and constantly evolving structure can only point towards an intentional and intelligent Creator. 

    Psalms 139:14-15 TPT

    [14] I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! [15] You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place;  carefully, skillfully you shaped me  from nothing to something.

    https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.139.14-15.TPT

    At the foot of the cross as St. John stood and watched, he testified in John chapter 19 that the Roman soldiers when they came to Jesus they didn’t practise the ritual crurifragium (breaking of thigh/leg bone to hasten the death).  In his yesteryears St. John saw a vision of the rider on the white horse, whose title was the Word of God, quite fittingly he describes, 

    “On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.”

    Revelation 19:16 NLT

    https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.19.16.NLT

    There it is evident for all to see, for all eternity written on His thigh, His title as the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. 

    The femur which means, strength, life and resilience for mankind now brings hope to the ailing humanity in the coming of the ‘King of kings & Lord of lords’.

    God bless you!

  • Hypertrophy

    Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary defines ‘hypertrophy’ as: excessive development of an organ or part
    specifically : increase in bulk (as by thickening of muscle fibers) without multiplication of parts.

    In case of skeletal muscles this (hypertrophy) is what happens in those who undertake strength training. Multiple cycles of repetitions – muscle contractions/ relaxations daily compounded over weeks and months leads to hypertrophied muscle.
    In the initial phase there is a lot of wear and tears (micro trauma) to the muscle causing soreness to un-accustomed muscle group but eventually this persistence leads to bulking up of the particular muscle group.

    Vierck, J et al. “Satellite cell regulation following myotrauma caused by resistance exercise.” Cell biology international vol. 24,5 (2000): 263-72. doi:10.1006/cbir.2000.0499

    Y’hoshua (Joshua) 1:8 CJB
    [8] Yes, keep this book of the Torah on your lips, and meditate on it day and night, so that you will take care to act according to everything written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, and you will succeed.
    https://bible.com/bible/1275/jos.1.8.CJB

    The Hebrew word for meditate is hagah (הגה) which literally means to mutter/ to utter or speak. This day and night meditation by means of constant utterance and repetition is commonly found in the book of Psalms.
    Psalm 1:2 AMPC
    [2]  But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts,
    the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.
    https://bible.com/bible/8/psa.1.2.AMPC

    The human brain is not a muscle to be hypertrophied but the constant repetition day after day brings about a change from the inside out. Saturation with God’s truth kills the weeds of doubts and fear. Verbal repetition strengths the neural pathways in the brain responsible for memory, especially long-term memory.

    Just as repetition cause muscles to hypertrophy and bulk up, become more resistant to injury & stress, repetition of God’s word causes our brains to form strong neural pathways to remind us constantly of His truth.
    I believe this form of meditation is what caused David the little boy to bulk up (not physically but spiritually) to the giant Goliath. He could operate from a place of Faith when all his countrymen cowered in fear.

    May God’s word be the object of our meditations as our minds bathe in the knowledge of His truth.

    God bless!

  • Step & Stride

    Lessons (orthopedic) from the walk

    Step length while walking is the distance between the point of contact of one foot and the point of contact of the opposite foot.
    Stride length is the distance between the successive points of initial contact of same foot.
    Stride involves two steps, hence it’s twice the length of single step.
    Cadence is the number of steps per minute.

    *Aggarwal, Abhinandan & Gupta, Rohit & Agarwal, Ravinder. (2018). Design and Development of Integrated Insole System for Gait Analysis. 1-5. 10.1109/IC3.2018.8530543

    When I walk with my daughter, she has to take couple of steps in order to match my stride length. At a little above 6’1″, my normal stride length will be somewhere between 1.5 – 1.9 meters, depending on my speed, etc, while for my daughter who stands just above my hip, the stride length will be approximately a 1/3rd of that.
    So for every step I take, she’ll take two or more, that increases her cadence (number of steps per minute).

    In our walk with Abba, so many times we take few steps forward but still feel He is not moving. That’s the difference between the human and the divine step/stride.
    Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
    [8] “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
    [9] For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.55.8-9.NLT

    The times when we feel, He’s not moving or working, we must remember that He’s always working, always moving just the divine cadence is different.

    The other aspect to it is that more often than not, I subconsciously take smaller steps while walking with my daughter in order to match her pace. When I reduce my step and stride length, she can walk comfortably & unhurriedly. In our life’s path, when we feel the pace of things is too slow, it would be wise to call to remembrance that Abba has to slow down intentionally so that we can walk comfortably & unhurriedly.

    a daddy-daughter walk

    Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
    [28-30] “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

    https://bible.com/bible/97/mat.11.28-30.MSG

    Happy walking! God bless!

  • What I Cannot Hold

    What I Cannot Hold

    What my hands cannot hold, I give into the hands of the One who holds me.

    What I cannot hold – my regrets from yesterday
    What I cannot hold – my worries about tomorrow
    What I cannot hold – how today unfolds
    What I cannot hold – what I wasn’t meant to handle
    What I cannot hold – what others think of me
    What I cannot hold – what they will say of me
    What I cannot hold – the crushing weight of the responsibilities, dreams and aspirations.

    Just as the toys are age group specific, what if the things we strive and struggle with the most are age/season specific too.

    What is too big for my palmar grasp may be perfect for the Father’s grasp.

    He holds it all together!

    Psalms 36:5-6 MSG
    [5-6] God’s love is meteoric,
    His loyalty astronomic,
    His purpose titanic,
    His verdicts oceanic.
    Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost;
    Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

    https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.36.5-6.MSG

    He’s got the whole world in His hands and yet He still holds your hands.


    Isaiah 41:13 NLT
    [13] For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.
    https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.41.13.NLT

    God bless 😊.

  • The Fear of Offence

    One famous quote attributed to Napoleon says, “The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”

    The silence of good people in our generation can partially be attributed to the widespread epidemic of cancel culture. The flip side of this has been the raging  intolerance towards difference of opinion. While the woke culture constantly erodes the biblical foundations, every truthful opposition is hushed with an anaphylactic counter response! In the post-truth culture, truth has become relative and inclusive. If an all-affirming view is not endorsed then we are labelled radicals and bigots.

    The fear of offending someone is so crippling that it prevents so many of us from speaking or doing what is right. The Bible is unequivocally pro-life, pro-Israel & pro-family, still most of our gatherings and conversations actively bypass these issues!

    Is it humanly possible to please everyone, all the time? Even Jesus couldn’t care less about public opinion, as His followers can we speak up enough to become outspoken? Will we be remembered as the generation which cared more about pleasing men rather than God?

    John 1:4-5 NLT
    [4] The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
    The candle need not worry about offending the darkness, it must do what it was created for. Wether your light is a candle, a flashlight or a flood light we must do what we were meant to do.

    Keep shining your light 🕯️.

    God bless you!

  • Oh, be careful little feet!

    Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.
    John 13:1 NLT
    https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.13.1.NLT

    He knew His hour had come, He could see the cross and the thorns which lay ahead, but something important was yet to be done.
    As the disciples prepared for the last meal together, He prepared to wash their feet. The rabbi exchanged His robe for a washcloth, the King who came not to be served but to serve.

    The feet which had followed Him across the Judean-Galillean landscape.
    The feet which danced at the wedding in Cana.
    The feet that had accompanied Him when He turned funerals to celebrations.
    The feet which were drenched and soaked as He calmed the storm.
    The feet which had travelled to diverse places bringing the good news when He sent them out two by two.
    The feet He had authorised to trample on snakes and scorpions.
    The feet which climbed the mountain when they saw Him tansfigured in His heavenly glory.
    The feet which would run in fear just a few hours later.
    The feet which would  stealthily hurry to the conniving High priest to betray the One who was to wash them.

    As He washed and wiped these dusty feet, He not only saw the past of these weary men. He could see beyond the cross to how they would go on to change the world.
    Their checkered past would not limit their present appointment or their future impact.
    He washed their feet with water because on the morrow they would be cleansed with the blood He would shed.

    These washed feet would climb the mountain as He would ascend to the right hand of the Father.
    These feet would walk from the upper room to the ends of the earth bringing the good news.
    These feet would become the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of beautiful feet which bring good news, peace and salvation.
    These feet would facilitate the spread of good news where both the prince and the pauper could find hope and life.
    These feet would go on to gain more ground for the Kingdom of heaven than the gates of hell could ever prevail.
    These feet would walk them to their untimely deaths for the proclamation of the good news.

    In a few hours these washed feet would travel from the foot of the cross to the empty tomb and eventually to the ends of the 🌎.

    These feet had followed Him diligently.

    Oh! Be careful little feet where you go and whom you follow!

    God bless!

    Not to be served but to serve.

  • No, Mary did not know!

    Picture & Ceramic Credits – Jemy Philip @ https://www.instagram.com/withjoy_jemy?igsh=ZDE5ZHgxc21sY3hs

    Am I late for Christmas? The title sounds, like the curt – unexpected answer to the famous poetic song by Mark Lowry, ‘Mary did you know’. Indeed, Mary did not know, although the song puts these across as rhetorical questions that Mary may never answer. Just as it was with Mary, we may never know the full extent of the power and purpose as God fulfills His promises in our lives.

    He chose an unsuspecting, peasant Jewish girl to carry the One who carries us in His arm, to calm the baby who would calm the storms and calm our fears too. He chose her to play with the One who calls each star by name, to answer the calls and cries of the One who answers our prayers. How could she know what the future held for her, isn’t such knowledge too wonderful for human minds!

    Michael W Smith wrote in his famous song,
    “Nobody knew His secret ambition
    Nobody knew His claim to fame
    He broke the old rules steeped in tradition
    He tore the holy veil away
    Questioning those in powerful position
    Running to those who called His name
    But nobody knew His secret ambition
    Was to give His life away”
    Nobody knew, neither Mary nor His brothers, nor the disciples. None of them could even begin to fathom when He would expound from the scriptures the things that would come to pass. They just had to trust Him completely.

    Mary did not know what her future held, as she held the One who holds our future. Mary chose to keep things in her heart, things which were beyond comprehension. Let this be a call for us to keep things in our hearts, to trust where He leads, there He will provide. We may never have all the answers in this life, we were never meant to, the sheep only needs to follow, trust & obey.

    The 150-year-old hymn exhorts us thus,
    “Day by day, and with each passing moment,
    Strength I find to meet my trials here;
    Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
    I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
    He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
    Gives unto each day what He deems best,
    Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
    Mingling toil with peace and rest.”

    God bless you!

  • Called to Praise

    Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’ If I may add, ‘the Christian sees the opportunity to praise in every difficulty.’

    In Psalms we find a perpetual exhortation to bless the Lord, to praise His name. King David and the other Psalmists constantly praise His Holy Name irrespective of their circumstances.
    Psalm 103:1-2 AMPC
    [1]  BLESS (AFFECTIONATELY, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name!
    [2]  Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits–

    https://bible.com/bible/8/psa.103.1-2.AMPC

    Apostle Paul reiterated “praise-posture” to the New Testament Church.
    1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
    [16] Always be joyful.
    [17] Never stop praying.
    [18] Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

    https://bible.com/bible/116/1th.5.16-18.NLT

    Praise is the love language of a grateful heart!
    Praise/worship doesn’t diminish the sting of the trials or failures that besiege us but it allows us to focus on the only unchanging and unshakeable hope in our lives, the sovereignty of our Father. He’s the Father who never changes nor does His love and faithfulness end.

    From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same let the name of Adonai be praised.

    God bless!