Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

The End, or the Beginning?

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    Last week we went to a memorial service for a good friend who had died a couple of weeks earlier. This friend knew his end was near and was fully prepared to go to meet his Lord and Master. So it was good to pay our respects to his memory, and to give his wife a hug.

    This week we went to a funeral service of another good friend. There were many eulogies and memories given. He too, was ready to go on this, his last journey. The service left the hearers in no doubt of this fact. His family all recognised what he had lived for, and paid respects to this. It was a time of memories, with laughs and tears at the same time.

    So many people these days like to forgo the rite of a funeral, often just having a cremation rather than a funeral. This must be very difficult for those closest to the deceased, as there is not the same sense of closure as seeing the coffin go into the ground. This too, is the place where those closest can come in days to come, to remember, and at first to still grieve.

    For those who know the Lord God, it is comforting to take the promises of Scripture at their word. We can know that this is not the end of life, but in fact, the beginning of a new stage of life….life eternal with the God of Heaven. We have no comprehension of what  exactly is involved in this, as we only know this life, but both these friends of ours DO know what it is all about now. We can have this confidence here and now too, so let’s hope each one of us looks for this.

Life Lessons

Reflections

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        It was a gloriously mild winter day.  We had gone back to our home village while in the area and parked at the end of the road beside the local wharf. There were a couple of fishing boats discharging their catches to the waiting truck which had come for them, but other than that, it was the most peaceful scene one could imagine. There was no wind to break up the great reflections on the water, and each moored boat was sitting upon its own reflection.

   But then a fizz boat went roaring up the channel and the picture was completely smashed. The water became a churned up mess, and the reflections gone for the time being.

   This is just like gossip or a bit of temper in our lives. We may look great on the outside, and mostly be what we ought to be, but then one of these disturbing factors comes roaring through our day. The picture is gone, and the damage is done. Resentment sets in and the water of our day is disturbed. In some cases it takes a lot of time and effort to make it right, if indeed it can ever come right

    Let’s make sure that we curb our tongue and keep the water of our day with the beautiful reflections of God’s love!

Life Lessons

Our Anchor of Hope

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Last week we had the opportunity of sailing from one harbour to the next in Northern New Zealand. It reminded me of the many happy times we had been sailing ourselves when younger, and when we would spend weeks at a time enjoying the experiences that came along.

It reminded me particularly of one valuable lesson we learned very quickly during those years. At first when we went a quiet bay for some rest and relaxation after a day of sailing, we would drop the anchor, and then go inside for a hot drink. Then if, after a while, we could see that we weren’t in quite the same place as we had been when the anchor went down we would realise that we had drifted, and were much further out in the bay. So we would lift the anchor, and go forwards again, and put out more rope this time, pulling back on it to make sure that it had a good grip in the mud on the bottom. We soon learned to make this check every time the anchor went down.

    It’s a lot like that in life at times. There will be times when we think we have a good hold on things and then we find that the winds of life have picked us up and carried us where we don’t want to be. It is in times like this that as we stop and take stock of what is happening around us; we are to go forwards once more and drop our anchor into the hope that God gives us in His Word, the Bible.

    It is no use merely dropping the anchor; it is not the anchor that does the holding, it is what the anchor is sitting on. If the bottom has a lot of weed on it, the anchor will just slide along the top of it allowing our boat to drift. It is only as we put out more rope and pull back on it making sure that there is a good grip on the bottom, going through the weeds into the mud beneath, that we can rest in staying in one place. The rope is like the rope of faith in our life… the longer it is, the better the grip. The more we trust God in our difficulties, the stronger our faith becomes, and the firmer grip we have in the storms of life.

    Without hope in our life, everything seems pointless, and we tend to get depressed. So it is that without the hope of God’s salvation, we have nothing to look forwards to. God doesn’t intend His people to be swayed around in the storms, but we must do our part by digging deep into His Word for ourselves.

Life Lessons

Near Enough!!

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    We were working on a project together, and I was thinking it was time we were finished. “Well, that’s near enough”, I said as I put my gear down. My brother looked at it, and said, “Near enough is not good enough, Gwenyth, you’ll have to spend a bit more time on it!” Those words have stuck with me for over forty years, and whenever I am tempted to think “Near enough”, they come back to haunt me!

     King Solomon was one who chose what was good, but it was not the best. When he first became king, we are told that one night he had a vivid dream. In it, he heard God tell him to choose whatever he would like and it would be given to him. At this stage, Solomon was still new to being a king, and the thought of having to solve disputes between people at times was overwhelming. So he asked for wisdom to be able to govern the people he was over, as he should. God replied that seeing he had asked this thing that was not so much for himself, but for the benefit of others, that he would be granted this in abundance. Not only that, but he would  also be  given wealth and health.     We see as we read through  the book of Second Chronicles in the Bible, chapters 1-10, how God did indeed bless Solomon with great wisdom  and wealth. But there were times when Solomon thought he knew better than God and acted on his own feelings and desires. He felt that if he had princesses of the neighbouring countries as his wives, that  their fathers would not come to war against him.  But these young women came from pagan backgrounds, and as he listened to them, they gradually wore him down from his belief in the one true God Who had given him all that he had. He felt he had done near enough to what God wanted.     As a result of trying to please his many wives, he even got far enough away from God to make the idols that they wanted. Not only that, but he even placed them in God’s temple that he had built!  Solomon was near enough, but not good enough; he had chosen what was good, but not what was best!

    We have to be so careful that we don’t wander away from God’s instructions to mankind, or we too will miss out on not only what benefits us, but God’s best for us!

Life Lessons

Don’t Leave it Too Late!

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   In our Daily Bible reading, we came to the story of how God told Moses to get the people of Israel prepared to leave the land of bondage that they were in. But of course the king of Egypt didn’t want to lose his slaves that were building his great edifices, so each time Moses went to him and said, “The Lord says to let My people go to worship Me”, that the king refused to even contemplate the matter. That is when God sent the ten plagues one after the other until in desperation he finally almost pushed them out of his land when the eldest son in every Egyptian family mysteriously died  at the same time.     The interesting thing in this story, is that at first the king “hardened” his heart, but then after  the first few times of refusing to let them go, we read that it was God who  hardened the king’s heart. How could this be, we might wonder. Why would God do this and still send the plagues on the land?

      If a person persistently refuses to hear God’s message, then one day He will take them at their word, and they will lose all desire to follow Him. The following story illustrates this point perfectly…..      Many years ago, a cousin of ours showed some interest in the Gospel message, and we took him to a lot of the church services where the Gospel was plainly preached. He was clearly touched but never came to the point of actually making a commitment to become a Christian. So he dropped off going with us, and we lost touch with him.    A year or so later, he called to see my father-in-law, and must have been talking about health problems. Then he said “You know Uncle, I had a vivid dream the other night. I dreamed I was in a wide open space, and I knew that God was up there somewhere behind the clouds. Then I saw a great big blind come down between me and where God was, and I just know that I couldn’t come to Him now, even if I wanted to!”

    Shortly after this conversation, he took ill and passed away still in that frame of mind. What a lesson for each of us to learn! God says….”My Spirit will not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3) , and although He has great patience, it eventually wears thin and ceases….He takes us at our word.  We have to be careful we don’t pass this point of no return!

Life Lessons

God Knows Best!

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Another one of our friends has been diagnosed with cancer, and only given a short  while to live . We feel so much for his wife and family….here is a man who is living for the Lord and witnessing for Him, and now the Lord is saying, “Come home, My son, I want  you to be with Me now!”

   I remember another well known Christian speaker who also had the same diagnosis and he felt that his work for the Lord was being cut short. He wept and asked for prayer that he might be spared to continue this, not seeming to realise that the work he was doing was actually God’s work, more than his work!

   “As for God, His way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:31)….this thought kept running around in my head ever since hearing about our friend and his prognosis. A godly man, who was endeavouring to serve God all his days, to be struck down like this! We do not understand the ways of God. We are told that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts  (Isaiah 55:8-9).     We know that we are told to pray earnestly and in company of others seeking the same thing, but we have to remember that God is Sovereign…each one of us belong to Him and He has control over us….we cannot demand things of Him, even when our wishes seem to line up with Scripture. Our times are in His hands…everything we have has come from Him, and we are to hold them lightly, not grasping them and saying, “They are mine!” We have to be thankful for the good things we have and have had in the past, and be ready to yield them up to the One who gave them to us.

   It is so hard to know what to say to the family concerned that will be a comfort to them. They know all the Scriptures, they have faith that God can and does heal at times, but there are many godly people who have had to watch their loved ones slip away leaving them bereft… they have only God to turn to then and He will be more precious to them than ever.

   What more can be said? We can only say in our prayers the words of our Lord Jesus….”Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will !”  (Matthew 26:39)

Life Lessons

The Seasons of Life

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Have you ever thought of life in this way? We went to a funeral the other day, and it struck me again of the brevity of life when you have come to the end of it. When we are younger, the years stretch ahead endlessly (we think) and there always seems plenty of time to do the things we want to, or the things we know we ought to do. “Tomorrow” we tell ourselves, “We’ll do it (or think about it) tomorrow”.

But you know, tomorrow never comes. A wise king in the Bible called Solomon thought about these things and this is what he had to say about life…..”To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” He wrote more on these lines in  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8… His father, King David wrote these words….”As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes; For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place shall know it no more.” It sparked these thoughts…

Spring….         ages birth – thirty….       Seeds sown This is the time of life that we lay our foundations….of education, relationships and careers. We learn more in these years than at any other time of life. 

Summer ..        ages 30-50…                 Weeds grown These are the busy years…we are so busy raising a family, buying a home and getting established, that we allow the weeds of busyness to stifle any thoughts we might have towards God and the spiritual side of life.

Autumn…         ages 50-70…                 Deeds  reaping time It’s now the time of reaping what we’ve been sowing during the previous years. The habits we’ve formed, either bad or good; our families have grown and gone, and now we have time for the hobbies we’ve always promised ourselves to take up; we still have the energy to travel and see other parts of the world. Our habits take over and we are so busy having a good time that again we put thoughts of the future out of our minds.

Winter…           ages  70-?                     Needs…time’s flown!       Our grandchildren have grown and are now having problems which we can’t help taking on our own shoulders as we watch them flounder along making the same mistakes that we once made. Now we are brought up with a round turn by health problems, and we find that we have new needs. We have to downsize; things we once did with ease, now take all day. Then when we come to the next big-0 birthday, we realise that there is very little time left, and maybe no quality time at that. Our minds are not as clear as they used to be, and it is an effort to think of the future and spiritual things. “Well,” we say, “We’ve lived without God all these years, so we can die without Him too!”

This is the biggest mistake we can ever make. We should take time right NOW to think about the future and get ready to meet our Maker. Remember the trips we used to take and the preparations we made for them? The research we put into where to go and where to stay?  Our final trip is the greatest trip we will ever make….let’s make sure we are ready to go!

                                             

Life Lessons

How Should We Behave?

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     The sermon we had at church yesterday was quite challenging. Once again, it was taken from the book of 1 Peter, chapter three, and the topic was forgiving others when they have treated you badly. Now this is not easy to do….our natural inclination is to hit back and to show the person a thing or two! But this is not the way that Peter is talking about here, and it certainly wasn’t the way that Jesus Christ taught His disciples to behave. If we treat bad behaviour with kindness, we never know what the end result will be. It reminded me of a true story I heard once…..

    One time we visiting some folk in an area we hadn’t been to before, and they took us for a sightseeing drive around the place.  As we drove along,  our driver pointed out a house across the paddock. It was an old place, but he said it had once belonged to his uncle and aunt. They were Christian folk and went to church regularly, and their neighbours next door weren’t, and didn’t. The man neighbour was really nasty to them, just because he didn’t like Christians and had no use for this church going business. He would do all sorts of things to annoy them, like throwing mud and stones  on their roof, and everything else he could think about, short of them having to get the police onto him.

     The ladies of both these households were expecting a baby each about the same time, and eventually had them. The Christian family’s baby did very well, it had plenty of mother’s milk, and it grew happy and contented. But the nasty neighbour’s wife didn’t have much milk for her baby, and it was fretful and cried a lot, and didn’t grow at all. The parents were very worried, and of course in those days there was nothing they could buy that would suit a new born baby like mother’s milk. So in the end the worried father went to his Christian neighbour, and apologised for the way he had behaved, and asked if there was any chance of them being able to get some milk from the lady with the good baby.

    The Christian man talked it over with his wife, and they came up with a plan.  He went to his neighbour, and said, yes, his wife had enough milk to feed two babies, and that they would help them out on one condition. If the non-Christian family was prepared to come and live with them, they would feed the weak baby as well as their own. But they had to come and live in, and sit through morning and night Bible readings around the table.      The neighbour was getting desperate by this time as his baby was always crying because it was hungry, and no-one was getting any rest. So they moved in with their neighbours, and the Christian lady fed both babies. The more the babies drank, the more milk she made. It wasn’t long before the sickly baby was looking nice and plump, and didn’t cry incessantly as it had before.

    By this time, the non-Christian neighbour was getting used to the Bible readings each day, and in fact, he even began to get interested to see what was going to happen next when it came to the story parts. By the time the sickly baby was good enough to not need mother’s milk so much and able to drink cows milk, its father and mother had started to go to church  regularly with the Christian couple.      The man who had been so mean to his neighbour all those years before, was now a changed man, and became one of the staunchest men in the church. All because the Christian neighbour decided to not pay him back for what he had done to them.      He was now able to have a good conscience before God, and the friendship of his neighbour who had tried to  annoy him so much before!

We are never the losers for following the ways that God has set out in His Word, the Bible.