Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

How Old is our Soul?

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    The older we get, the more we tend to think about what lies ahead. We get to the stage of avoiding going to reunions where everyone looks SO old! Then we realise that they are probably thinking the same about us!

   It gets to the stage when invited to a grandchild’s engagement or birthday party, that we look around and see with horror that we are probably the oldest ones there!

   I stopped to think about this one day and remembered an incident when a young man said to his grandmother, “Granny, tell me, how old do you feel?” (She was in her early eighties by this time).

“Well,” she said, “It’s like this, I know my outside looks old and wrinkly and my bones ache when I get up, but inside I don’t feel any older than fifteen!”

“Really!” said the young man astonished, as he went on his way.

    The reason for this is that our soul is ageless. It never ages. It has been made to live for ever regardless of the age of the body it inhabits and when it dies. Every soul is precious in the sight of God, and His great desire is that each one will live with Him for ever.

    But along with God’s great love which people like to think about, goes God’s innate holiness and sense of justice. All wrongs must be righted and dealt with, and we would all agree with that. God knew that man could never pay the debt of all these injustices so He took on Himself to pay for these in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, the only sinless Person who has ever lived on earth.

   We may choose to not believe this, and this is our right, but then we must bear the consequences. God has done His part, and now we must do our part which is humbling ourselves to accept this free gift  so that our soul will live for ever in God’s presence. Don’t let anyone put you off making the right decision because the alternative of living without God or anything good for ever and ever doesn’t bear thinking about!

Life Lessons

Ruined!

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                                    Ruined!

We have just recently come back from a tour of the deep south of New Zealand that is full of beautiful pictures of lakes and mountains. One day we were sitting by a peaceful lake just soaking up the view. All was calm, and the reflections were just perfect. Then several ducks came swimming by and started squabbling in front of us.

Suddenly the perfect picture was broken into a thousand pieces by the actions of these birds, and it wasn’t until they had passed by that the reflections came back. It reminded me of how this is in our lives. We are told to be reflections of Jesus Christ in all His perfection, and perhaps we manage this for a time, but then we get upset over some little thing, and the reflection is broken to smithereens, and we behave in a very un-Christ-like manner.

But just as the reflection can come back to the lake, so we can pick up from where we left off, by confession and repentance. We are not to be worried that this happens because we are all human and God has made a provision for us, But it is an on-going thing, and is up to each one of us to put it into practice and not be discouraged.

Life Lessons

Man Proposes….

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            There’s an old saying that says…”Man proposes, but God disposes…”

There is more truth in this little ditty than first appears. We all like making plans, and sit down to get some idea of where we are going in the next few weeks. So it was with us. We had intended to visit the South Island once more, as it is some years since we last did this. With the restrictions put on us by Covid-19, we hadn’t got past just thinking about it. But now the pandemic had eased off in our country, and if we wanted to take advantage of what was left of the warmer weather, it was time to make some definite plans.

Finally, after tossing ideas around for a bit, we decided that halfway through March would be as good a time as any, and we would still be able to be back home for the next public holiday after Easter weekend.

    No sooner said than done. A few clicks on the computer and crossing Cook Strait on the ferry was all organised. Now we had something concrete to work towards. That was OUR proposal.

   But God had different ideas. Two things happened that we hadn’t reckoned on. First, the motorhome rolled into a bush and broke its grill….insurance job. But then the whole country was shut down again for a week, and we only had two weeks to go! Would the parts get through if the warehouse stayed closed? Not only that, how would we get through the affected area which was our only route to the ferry? So watch this space….it will be an on-going story. Now we have to put our money where our mouth is and put that verse into practice!! We have proposed, but God is the One who can dispose of them as quickly as they were made! We have to remember that God knows what is best for us, no matter how disappointed we may be!

There is another verse that says, “We know that ALL things work together for good for them who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

Life Lessons

Useless Bits of Junk!

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       I went into the kitchen and turned the electric jug on to make morning tea. Nothing happened. The jug stayed dead. “Bother!” I said, and turned to try the light switch. Nothing there either. “That’s funny!” I thought and then went into where the computer was. Well, that was going.

 “That’s even more funny,” I said out loud this time. “Hubby,”  I called out, “Some of the power plugs aren’t working, “We’ll have to see if a fuse is blown!”

 So we went around all of the power plugs, one by one, and checked them all out. Nothing stopped the main switch flicking up each time it was pushed down. We got in touch with son-in-law and told him what was happening.

“Hmm,” he said, “It could be out on the pole if you have three phase power. You’d better ring the power company.”

So we did this, and got a very obliging man on the other end. “No,” he said, “If that were the case, nothing would be going anywhere, and  yet you say half the house is going. Go through everything again, and pull the plug of each appliance right out of the socket, and see what happens.”

By this time we were getting quite weary, but thought we had better do what we were told. We were standing out in the garage at the time, so we started there, and pulled the plug of the freezer out of the wall socket, and hubby flicked the main switch down. Cheers! It stayed down this time.

“Well, that might have solved the problem,” he said. And so it proved to be. All the power plugs were going again and the lights that wouldn’t go before were now all on. So the problem was in the freezer.

    We didn’t bother to try it again as it was obvious to us that was where the problem was. Fortunately we had a smaller spare freezer, so we pulled it around and swapped the frozen goods into it, taking the other one to the back wall. Problem solved!

    I couldn’t help thinking what a lot of useless junk our appliances were without the power to make them go. The washing machine had no life in it, either did the drier. The microwave wasn’t any good for anything at all without the power going, and the frig was just getting warmer by the minute, and not doing its job. It didn’t bear thinking about having no lights in half the house when it got dark!

   It reminded me of what we as people are like if we don’t have the power of God connected to us. We aren’t capable of having fellowship with Him, in fact we don’t WANT to have fellowship with Him as we were made to do. An iron won’t work unless it is connected to the power, and a toaster won’t go at all but remains dead. That is how the Bible describes people who don’t know God as being dead in trespasses and sins, and it is only Jesus Christ who can give us life and connect us to the power of God to bring the light on in our lives. What a difference it makes in every way!

    It pays to think seriously about these things. After all, if this way of looking at things is wrong, then we have nothing to lose, but if it is right, we have everything to lose, and that is very sad indeed!

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. We would normally think that the fact that he asked for wisdom to rule his people well was a good thing to ask for, but in spite of that, in his older age he stopped trusting the Lord for safety, and used his human reasoning instead. He figured that if he married princesses from the surrounding nations, that their fathers would not attack the land their daughter was in! He trusted these ideas more than he trusted God to keep him safe from an enemy attack.

But there seemed to be more and more of these princesses, and he ended up with “seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. (1 Kings 11:3,4,8)”.

    What a warning this is for us! No-one could have had a better start than Solomon did and yet he allowed himself to be swayed by the opinions of others rather than what God had told him. We have to be so careful that we continue to read what God’s Word has to say to us, and to follow what it tells us rather than what others tell us. Those who we associate with closely, have a greater influence over us than we think.

    We all know the dangers there are in our teenagers keeping company with the wrong crowd, but here was a mature man, and supposedly a very wise man, being swayed by the opinions of his many wives. Instead of him being the leader of his household, he was being led by the women of his household. He could have said his thoughts and actions were “near enough” as far as God was concerned, but they weren’t enough to keep him safe from turning away from the things of God. So you can see that we need to be so awake to the dangers around us and not allow ourselves to be swayed by anything that will take all our thoughts….any game, club, or interest that takes all our time or thoughts needs to be pruned out of our minds!

Life Lessons

Looking Back.

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   We are coming to the end of another year. What a year it has been! A year like no other anyone has ever experienced. If we had been told this time last year all the events that were going to come upon us in the year 2020, we would not have believed it!

     To think that the whole world has been affected by what has been called Covid19. It has spread so far and so wide, that most people have forgotten the beginning of it all….just one little virus getting loose that eventually brought the whole world to a standstill!

    For some, there have been other traumatic things happening….perhaps the loss of a loved one or some accident that has turned their world upside down. No matter how smart mankind becomes, we cannot foretell the future. All we can do is to hope that 2021 will be a better year.

    But Christians have more than that to fall back on….we can say that although we don’t know what the future holds, at least we know the One Who holds the future! This makes all the difference as we move on into another new year. If we do not have this confidence, there is nothing to stop us getting it. It doesn’t cost us any money to get it, but it does cost us the experience of having to humble ourselves before a God who we don’t yet know, but Who is calling all people everywhere to come to Him.

   This is one of the reasons we are here on earth so that we can come to know Him while here and learn His ways. He will set us free of our addictions and bad habits, and fellowship with us every day.

   The thing that surprises me most, is that  people say they want to go to heaven when they die, and they speak at funeral services as though their loved ones have gone “up there”, but yet they feel most uncomfortable in a church building, let alone in  a church service! How do they think they are going to be able to stand being in a place that is holy, clean and righteous, singing praises to a God they have never met!!! This is something that we all need to think about here and now, even before this uncomfortable year has finished!!

Life Lessons

Why is this Happening?

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I’ve been trimming and tying up my young rose plants to keep them as standard roses. They are two years old now, and if left, will become just a tangled head with branches out in all directions. They will not grow any taller if left like that either. I have a couple that are a year older than the ones I am now working on, and I had just left them to do their own thing. How I wish I had started earlier on training them! When the time came last winter to cut them hard back, one decided it had had enough, and just died on me. If we aren’t being constantly trimmed by the Master Gardener, when the time finally comes and we go through some fiery trial, we can’t take it, and give up altogether. It is sad indeed to see a person who once ran well, being used by God, and then some years later to see them become disillusioned and bitter older people!

    We too, are like these young rose plants, with each one of us needing to be tied strongly to the stake of Jesus Christ! If we aren’t rooted in Him and tied firmly to Him, we will just blow from side to side and our spiritual life will maybe get damaged beyond repair. Nor will we be able to be a thing of beauty to those who see us

    Another thing is, I look ahead to see how I want the finished rose plant to look like. If one shoot looks strong and healthy and is growing out from the main stem in a suitable place, I will tie it upright to the existing main stem, thinking I will let it grow in its new position and then when it is strong enough I will cut off all the other heads when they have finished flowering. Yes, what we are doing now may be useful and being involved in the Lord’s work, but He can see ahead to a better task for us to do, one which will take the main head even higher. It may hurt the plant to have one stem fastened upright in such a fashion, and it may hurt us to be tied in some way that gives us pain and restricts us now, but the end result will enable our character to be a thing of beauty and us be even more help to those around us.

It’s amazing how many lessons there are to be found in the garden, from weeding, to pruning, to spraying….all these things having to be attended to constantly.

 No wonder our Lord said, :” I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciple. (John 15:1-8)

Life Lessons

Never Too Old!

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We have just returned  from another motor home trip …..this time we went around the East Cape area of the North Island of New Zealand, mostly an area we have seen very little of. So we took our time this time, and spent nearly a week in this part of our country. When we got back, I was asked what the most memorable part of our trip was….without hesitation, I said, “Potholes!”

   We had travelled for six hours and covered about 120 ks in that time around Lake Waikaremoana in the middle of the North Island. The road here was unsealed and with a gravel surface, and shut down of things due to covid 19, the roads had got progressively worse and worse.

Also we weren’t able to see much of the lake due to the shrubbery that was growing on the roadside between us and the shore, but the small glimpses we got were fabulous!  A lot of the trip was through primeval bush growing on steep, steep hills.

    It was amazing to think that here we were in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the comfort of our motorhome, and being  able to enjoy these giants of nature with no effort on our part (except for the jolting of the potholes!!). To think that these trees had never been touched by man’s axe or saw, was really something. Seeing them like this reminded me of God’s power in creation, and in spite of the potholes, we couldn’t help but thank Him for being able to be here to see them!

   Another memorable thing about this trip was when we saw the oldest and largest pohutukawa tree in New Zealand, at a place called Te Araroa. We walked around it in amazement….it was so old that a great many of its enormous branches were lying on the ground around it, some of them having re-rooted. Not only that, but this ancient tree was still bearing flower buds….it was a bit early in the season for them to out yet, but I couldn’t help thinking that no matter how old or how infirm we are, or wherever we find ourselves, we can still bear flowers or fruit for our Master. Even a smile or a thank-you is a small bit of flower for Him, and will bring joy to others.

   So never give up or let ourselves think we are too old or useless to shine wherever we are!