Monthly Archives: July 2015

Grandma's Stories, Uncategorized

“I Can’t See You; You Can’t See Me!”

IMG_0041Uncle Jeff laughed as he watched the little girl hiding her face against her father’s legs. “Haha”, he laughed, “she thinks we can’t see her if she can’t see us! That reminds me of something I saw the other day while taking the train down to the city”.

“Oh, do tell us, Uncle Jeff”, Bobby said.

“Yes, please”, said Betty as she climbed up beside him.

Sarah crept in behind him pretending she wasn’t really listening, but she like Uncle Jeff’s stories as much as the others did.

“Well”, said Uncle Jeff, “We often see this sheep and goat in a paddock near the train line as we go past. We call them Sheepley and Goatley. But last week, they were through the fence right beside the line. We could see them as we came round the corner, but there’s no way we can stop the train when it’s going full speed. So we blew the whistle as loudly as it would go. Both Sheepley and Goatley looked up and saw the train coming, so they ran to the fence where they had got through. But they couldn’t find the hole they had crawled through, so they each stuck their head through the fence and thought they were safe. They looked so funny!! Haha!” and Uncle Jeff started laughing again as he remembered it.

“What silly things!” Betty said, “I wouldn’t do that!”

“I’m not so sure about that”, Uncle Jeff said, “How many times do you pretend you haven’t done something wrong when you have? That is just as silly because God has seen what you did!”

Betty squirmed and said, “I s’pose so. But look at baby Lizzie over there. She thought we couldn’t see her because she couldn’t see us”.

“Shhh Betty!” Bobby said, “Did you see them any more Uncle Jeff?”

“When we came back later that day, there they were again feeding right beside the danger on the line once more”, he said, “And they did the same thing again….they ran to the fence and poked their heads through it thinking they were safe”.

“I guess that’s a bit like people who won’t face what God tells them in the Bible”, Sarah said thoughtfully from behind them.

“That’s quite right Sarah,” said Uncle Jeff, “We’ve got to remember that one day we are going face Him and tell Him why we didn’t listen and do something about it. Well, off you go outside, that’s all the stories for today”.

“Thanks, Uncle Jeff”, said Bobby, “Race you to the gate, Betty!”

Daily Devotionals

Thoughts from Proverbs Chapter Two…

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Solomon is begging his son here to listen and take notice. A person with a bit of age and experience behind him, can see the pitfalls that a headstrong youngster can never see.

“Listen to me”, Solomon says, “Seek and apply yourselves, ask and seek earnestly for wisdom!” Do we do this?

God has all these blessings in Christ Jesus waiting for us, but we must put effort into getting them (John 15:7). James tells us that we don’t have the enjoyment of them because we don’t ask for them and apply ourselves to getting them (James 4:2c). It is like a student once who needed finance to get through his course and asked the Lord to provide it. He did, but not in the way he expected it…. God provided a job for him to earn his own money!

Those who earnestly and prayerfully seek, WILL find …..this is one of the prayers that God has unconditionally promised He will grant! (Matthew 7:7)

Seek wisdom from the Lord above, Who gives all things richly in love;

But we must search and seek this for, It to be giv’n from God’s rich store.

Grandma's Stories

Who’s Driving Your Car?

Hitchhiker 2  Sarah was sitting in church one Sunday morning with her mind only half on what the speaker was saying. ….

“I’m going to tell you a modern day parable to illustrate what I’m trying to get across to you”, he was saying, “We hear people talk about being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit, and allowing Him to control you’. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us….we are not to be controlled by strong drink like a drunk person, but we are to allow God  to control us in the same way….”

Sarah suddenly sat up when she heard the preacher say….”It’s like this. Imagine you are driving your car along the road of life, and you see a hitch-hiker with his thumb up asking for a ride. You somehow know that this is the Lord Jesus asking to come into your life. You have the choice of either going straight past Him or stopping and giving Him a lift. Most people will just go straight past Him and not give Him a thought. But perhaps you think you would like to ask Him into the car with you.

You stop and let Him in….but where are you going to put Him? In the luggage compartment? No, you are not that mean. In the back seat then? Well, no, you would like to talk to Him a bit on the trip. What if He asked for the keys of the car? No way, you think, I’m driving this car and I want to go here or there where I please.

This is just what we all do with the Lord Jesus…we might let Him drive a short distance after we’ve been to camp and got a spiritual lift, or after hearing a good speaker at church. But then you simply HAVE to make a stop along the way, and when you get back into the car, you are back behind the wheel again!”

Sarah sighed. Why did preachers always have to put you on the spot? She knew very well that there were times when she did wrong things and went to wrong places or looked at wrong things, and that Jesus certainly wasn’t driving her car at those times.

The preacher finished his talk, but the things that he said stuck in Sarah’s mind, and as she got older she always thought of this little parable whenever she was tempted to do something she knew wouldn’t please the Lord.

She really DID want to let Him drive her “car” but it wasn’t always easy. After all what was it the Lord Jesus said to His disciples? “If any person will follow Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”. (Luke 9:23)

Grandma's Stories, Stories for Littlies

Why Clean the Shower?

CHLD348   Bobby and Betty were playing ball outside on a winter’s day. The ground was quite wet and it wasn’t long before the ball was covered in mud. The next shower came and they went inside for a drink.

“Bobby!” exclaimed Mum, “Just look at your hands and your clothes! You are covered in mud!!”

“That’s alright, Mum”, Bobby said, “It’ll wash off!” and he reached out for the drink that Mum had ready.

“Bobby!” Mum said sternly, “That’s no way to talk! Don’t you know how much work it takes to get your clothes clean?”

Betty came bounding into the kitchen just then.

“Betty!” Mum exclaimed, “Whatever have you been doing? You’re so grubby!”

“I’ve been playing ball with Bobby!” Betty said (as though Mum couldn’t tell!)

“Well, you’d better both go and have a shower and put clean clothes on as soon as you’ve finished your drinks”, Mum said.

“I’m going first!” Bobby said, as he gulped down the last of his drink and went off to the bathroom.

“You make sure you wipe the shower box out with the spray cleaner when you’ve finished”, Mum called after him.

“Why do we have to wash the shower box out?” Betty asked, “It’s clean water”.

“Well”, Mum said, “there’s the dirt that comes off you, and the soap has a certain amount of grease in it, so the splashes inside the shower get thicker and thicker until it looks like a greasy scum over the whole thing. That is VERY hard to get off. It’s much easier to keep it clean all the time”.

“That’s right”, said Dad as he came into the kitchen catching the last bit of conversation. “You know it’s just like the little bad things that we do and say every day. If we don’t keep telling God that we are sorry for these things and ask Him to help us do better next time, we end up being mean and nasty all the time. It’s not a good idea to be like that! It’s much better to do it every day.”