Reaping what we have not sown !

“Wherever there is reaping”, Evangelist Roger Carson says, “The hard work of sowing has been done first. Labour and reward are permanently linked in nature and evangelism”.

Gardening was Jude’s “Thing”, and about six years ago she set about remodelling the side of the front garden with passion. She loved tools & wood and her creative ability went right back to her days studying art at school. Using scaffolding boards, she set about on this new project and I was happy to watch from a distance!

What I had noticed nearly three years later after a little tidy it was looking incredible. All the beautiful grasses and plants had matured, the old cut down trunks of a tree were weathered and it was all looking fabulous. And of course, Mr Cockerill was still looking in charge, all I had to do was paint his beak!

Fast forward to May 2025 Jude’s earlier project was looking a bit sad after winter & needed a refurb! What amazed me was the compost heap she built & covered several years ago was ready to be used so I was able to transfer new soil to replenish the area. I couldn’t help think that in a practical way I was still, “Reaping what I had not sown”. It touched my heart and I thanked God again for Jude’s sowing all those years ago.

I couldn’t help stand back again today and say, “There you go Jude, your labour of love which has produced lasting fruit that remains. Even though you are with the LORD, you are still speaking through this and I thanked God for you”

Prayer

Dear Father, Jude is now in your presence, but as I looked at the garden project she did nearly six years ago, she is still speaking. As we sow both physically & spiritually, we know it can take time for the fruit to come but when it does it makes it all worth it.

Father, help me leave something that people will remember & enjoy.

Amen

Assist Us to Live Not Die

On Friday, MPs have the first opportunity to debate and vote on a proposed law which would give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life.

The debate will last five hours with at least 150 speakers proposing to speak, which equates to two minutes per speaker according to a Sky News correspondent.

Please bear in mind, The Hunting Act which was passed in 2004 after a Government Inquiry had 700 hours of parliamentary debate.

This is a very close subject to me of course with Jude and I do understand every situation is unique and people can experience exceptional high levels of personal suffering in their last days. Emotionally it is a tsunami at the highest level.

I want to say first of all that for Jude, she wanted to live, and I too wanted her to live. The Doctors & nurses were amazing and throughout her treatment the levels of pain & distress were closely monitored. By the grace of God in that final evening and early hours of the following morning she was sleeping and there were no signs of any major anxiety, now that is what is called dignity in dying. Thankyou to all the staff at the City Hospital in Belfast.

As a Christian, I know that Jude after her last breath was in one moment absent from her body & present with The LORD. We should all be concerned more about what happens after our last breath. For more information Click Here

Sadly, as a nation in the UK we continue to gravitate away from our Christian pedigree which in times past influenced so many nations of the world with the Gospel. It breaks my heart to see how easy it is to get an abortion and now at the other end how easy it could become to end your life.

Even this morning in the book of Leviticus, God reminds His people Israel that taking or assisting another person to take their life is an act that carries the penalty of death. (Lev 24:17 &21).

I think God cares about LIFE, don’t you?

In the age of progressive medicine and palliative care we really do not have an excuse to even think on these things but Jeremiah was right when he said;

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (17:9)

I’m sure there are many who would like to have a member of their family, “Put down” because of what their family member is experiencing and what they too are experiencing emotionally but The Assisted Dying Bill is not the solution, we must simply continue working with the medical community and providing the funding that is so desperately needed to help in time of need.

Once we get, “Into our heads”, that the Assisted Dying Bill is a legitimate road it simply becomes a slippery slope when other things will be added in time, maybe somebody just depressed, fed up with life and there you go, the Assisted Dying Bill becomes a type of legitimate Suicide.

God help us as a nation to come back to Him and His principals for a blessed life.

If you know NOT Christ……. Click Here

Tender Mercies

“Heavenly Father, thankyou that whatever this life may throw at us your right beside us, and some of the circumstances we encounter are the finger prints of God. Give us eyes to see you LORD in the good and the bad and remember to give you thanks in everything. Amen”

This is the prayer Jude ended with when she gave a talk on the first five verses of Psalm 103 just a few months before being diagnosed with Leukemia.

The Church at St Johns, Hillsborough like so many others were in the midst of the Covid outbreak so Pastor Raj asked Jude to do a few recordings to benefit the congregation during a difficult time.

Some of her opening words on this incredible Psalm written by King David were as follows;

“There are times when we need a good dose of Psalm 103 to wash out that complaining spirit & replace it with a heart of gratitude to The LORD”

Regarding the benefits outlined in the Psalm Jude quotes Spurgeon;

“God selects a few of the choicest pearls, from a casket of divine love, threads them on a string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of gratitude”

Just for a moment, I want to focus on the latter part of verse 3, “….and heals all your diseases”, Jude said:

“Healing is another one of God’s great benefits to our bodies, He brings healing to us in this life through natural & miraculous ways, He promises ultimate healing for all His people in the age to come”

Jude had already said that she had received a miraculous healing, (from the menopause). Read the account by Clicking Here.

Also, and prophetically she would later fulfil ultimate healing. Read the story by Clicking Here.

I came across Jude’s notes recently on this talk and was blessed to be able to watch a short video which is still ministering to saints today.

If you would like to watch Jude give this talk it will encourage & challenge you.

Tender Mercies: A talk by Jude Gray based on the first five verses of Psalm 105.

Click Here

May The LORD bless you with His benefits.

The Trump Of God !

Some years ago, I remember seeing some beautiful flowers, resembling trumpets when delivering mail to a particular property. I knew the customers and after commenting on the flowers, I was blessed some weeks later with a gift of bulbs. They are called Nerine Bowdenii of South African origin.

The story goes that the flowers drifted on the seas from South Africa, eventually washing up on the shores of the island of Guernsey. It was this ocean voyage that earned the flower its name: ‘Nerine’, in a reference to the 50 beautiful daughters of the sea-god Nereus. The flower is also known as the Guernsey Lily in the UK.

Some say that the Nerine Bowdenii expresses what is often left unsaid, thus bridging the gap between heart and mind. “I care about you”.

As the flowers have just blossomed in the garden it reminded me especially in the area of grief, things that were left unsaid. Like so many others who experience deep grief you cannot help thinking whether you did enough and it takes time & prayer to bring healing to our emotions. You don’t always see things at the time but friends remind me I gave my best to Jude especially in the closing days.

Somethings are left unsaid, but love goes beyond words when it is deep & secure in a healthy marriage. I close with a “Life verse”, that encourages me daily regarding my re-union with Jude if I’m still living at the blast of a Trumpet !!!.

Be encouraged Christian if loved ones in Christ have been sent ahead…..

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess 4:13-18

The Heart Of The Lily Is Love….

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12:27

Yesterday I noticed the lilies about to open, they were a gift to Jude from one of her customers and every year I have the joy of not only seeing them open but being able to enjoy their dazzling display. No wonder Jesus said the lily was better clothed than King Solomon in all His finery and for us not to worry about what we shall wear ourselves !!.

Symbolically, lilies are associated with love, and sympathy for the departed.

I think the heart shaped STIGMA is amazing. The stigma is part of the female reproductive system of a flower. It is found in the center of a flower and helps to collect pollen. The stigma is on top of the style and is the apex of the reproductive system. It is waxy or sticky to collect the dry pollen which is blown by the wind or transferred by insects.

The heart shaped stigma is just like real love because it serves a purpose and just as the the stigma attracts pollen so our life in Christ should be attractive to those who we come in contact with.

I must admit when I saw the lilies open this morning, the sight of the stigma made me rejoice and praise The LORD not just for His amazing creation but for His love for me. May you be blessed also.

An extra blessing to you today….

Spared from the evil to come !

“The righteous perish, and no-one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” Isaiah 57:1

Taken many years ago, this is a picture of Jude and the wee dogs walking in the direction of St Malachi’s, Hillsborough Parish Church. It hangs on my living room wall and has recently took on a whole new meaning of the journey we are all taking as believers to heaven. Notice the door open in the church, when the time comes we enter from time into eternity & into the presence of The LORD.

A few days after Jude’s promotion I received a letter from a friend in Scotland quoting the above scripture from Isaiah. I have often pondered on this because the days are waxing worse, The LORD is shaking the heavens & the earth once more. (Hebrews 12:26-29). Chaos in the Middle East lies at the root of biblical prophecy for instead of Shalom their is war. But one day there will be peace in Jerusalem and we are to pray for it. (Psalm 122:6-7). The LORD is about to return and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.(Zechariah 14:4).

In a way, Jude has been blessed by going away before the end time events really kick in and spared from any further evil. My friends realise that all those you love in Christ who have gone before you are spared the evil to come. Whatever their condition when they breathed their last breath be assured their days of suffering & pain are over.

Just to cement these comments, I have been reading the autobiography of Elizabeth Elliott, the wife of Jim Elliott who was martyred for his faith. While a student she wrote about the death of her science teachers brother at twenty five years of age.

“……when Betty’s science teacher learned that his twenty-five-year-old brother died of a pulmonary embolism they believed to be connected to his Army Air Corps training she said, “it was a great shock”. She wrote to her family, “but the Lord has a perfect plan, and we never know what He may have been saving him from”. Elizabeth Elliott A Life Pg32

So my friends, your tomorrow is not promised, there is a Gospel to live & preach so I close with a final word for you today;

“Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15)

Thank you………

After completing Jude’s book and sending out the link, I would just like to say a big thank you for the amazing response and the kindest of words.

I was struck by the number of nations where people have viewed from. I continue to pray that Jude’s book will be a great comfort to many believers going through a valley and also a warning to those outside of Christ that personal salvation is the only answer to life’s questions.

Here are a few of the comments received;

“A beautiful person reflected in a beautiful book”. AW

“At the end of the day it’s not the sermons we have heard or the books we have read, but the precious lives of the people that the Lord put alongside us that have the biggest effect. These are the true blessings that we treasure. Sister Jude was most definitely one of those treasures that the Lord Jesus blessed us with, and we thank Him daily”. AK

“I’m so impressed with this book. I hadn’t realised she was writing it and I think it’s wonderful that you’ve finished it”. AH

“Aw, thank you so much. I loved Jude and this brought a tear to my eye” G

“Your book is poignant and powerful and beautifully written- a masterpiece just like your beloved”. A

Thank you again and may God richly bless your life.

Andy