Being of Good courage

Hi there,
How's things going?
How are you?
What have you been doing?
Today I want to talk to you about being of good courage, and it came out of my work day yesterday.
I won't name names, but it was a great day, I did some baking, and I felt that's where I belong, intact out of doing the baking for the castle yesterday, I thought that maybe I could work on a plan to get my own bakery, and teach people how to bake,  single mothers, single fathers, flat mates, grannies, and have a community bakery.
That to me, would be awesome, something along the lines of the lovely Jewish mothers who got a group of people and started baking and making Jewish things for their families so that they would not forget their history, or the food values.
Because I work in the food industry, it can become an idol.
But I want to put that all aside for one moment, and talk to you about, being on good courage.
Because we need it all the more in this world.
What does the bible say about being on good courage, and what is good courage?
Does it mean being weak and being a door mat  for other people?
Does it mean to be nasty back when other people are nasty to us?
Does it mean to turn the other cheek?
As the old saying goes W.W.J.D?

It stands for What Would Jesus do?

How we believe in Jesus,  changes our view of things, if we just believe in him that we will go to heaven and what we do here on earth, doesn't matter, it does.
We can't be part time Christians on a part time Sunday contract.

If we need help to over come our addictions, we have to make the right step, in the right direction,  and if you're slipping to make that choice, talk to someone who can help, you, who can offer good Godly advice, so that you're getting the right help, and don't struggle alone, it hurts, it closes off everything, it's telling you that everything will just settle down, and perhaps maybe that could be right, but if you know someone who needs help, go and talk to someone.

Courage, means to be strong, but we can't be strong by ourselves, we need Jesus,  and Moses knew that, he couldn't lead the  Israelites all by himself, he had to believe that God would keep the pillar of cloud during the day, and a pillar of fire by night to be there all the time.
It took his faith, to believe in that.
It took faith to believe that they would get out of the dessert eventually, 40 years they were living in there.
Imagine that, living in the dessert, and all the while believing that they would be in the Promise land.
And Joshua there all by his side encouraging them to be strong.
We all need "Joshua's'' in our life,  and if you're the Moses sort and you always are propping people up, be careful  of Christian burn out.

If you're wondering why you go to church or wondering what the sermon is on, or about,  go back to the drawing board and get some strong encouragement. All to soon we want to catch up with our friends and ask them about their week, arrange to go out for a coffee, but we forget the service, it's like we've been wearing our Christian dressing gowns and changed and left the dressing gown still on the floor.

We still need to wear our Christian dressing gown, always ready to serve.

Moses, knew God so intimately,  in fact that God buried him and no one knows where Moses is buried.
Moses, just didn't believe him from day to day, he believed that all the way.

When God says that he's going to do it, he's going to do it.
And we only need to believe him.

Joshua took up the mantle, to lead the Israelites into the Promise land, and what was God's very  first words to him?

''Do not be  strong and courageous, do not be terrified, be of good courage.''

Why?
This is because they had to cross over into their enemy territory, and many times when they did that when Moses was leading them, they had many of their enemy kings after them.
God hears the cry of the broken, if you're in pain today, if you're saying goodbye to a loved one, God is there.
He's not blind to your plea of help.
Joshuas mission was encouragement,  he knew that he had to encourage them, to keep going.
He knew he had to keep the vision alive.

My friend if you're wondering what you're doing and maybe you've lost a bit of your vision, keep going, get people around you who encourage you.
That is all I want you to do, if you have been thinking about your friends, and how you can enjoy life that much more enjoy, if anything just encourage people, and you might just get some back.

Chloe