Monthly Archives: November 2015

Morning Musings

Summer 2015-16

Ship MaileNovember 29th…

Next week will herald the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer. Summer in New Zealand is the season of sun, sand and fun on the water. But our weather in these islands of New Zealand tend to be very changeable and variable. Especially in the northern part of the country. The land is long and narrow and sandwiched between two large oceans….the Pacific Ocean on the east, and the Tasman Sea on the west. This is said to be one of the roughest and most treacherous seas in the world.

Most people living in Northland have some association with the sea, if not commercially, then recreationally. When the weather is good everyone who has a boat takes to the water, and on good days, little boats dot the wide open bays as far as one can see.

My great-grandfather’s family came from an area in England that was inland and as far as we know, had never had any association with the sea. When they emigrated to New Zealand in 1861, they had a four month ocean voyage ahead of them, and then a short coastal trip from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. From then on, their lives were inextricably tied up in the sea. All travel was done by sea; all their goods were transported by coastal scows; one son became a sea captain of sailing ships, another son turned to boat building. The sea was their very life blood, and their descendents have this love of the sea in their veins.

But like a lot of things, while the sea can be a good servant if used wisely, it can be a bad master when carelessly taken for granted. Treat it carefully and it will repay you a hundred-fold, but ignore the signs and one may even pay for it with one’s life!

 

 

Random Devotional Thoughts

Do You Have a Loose Connection?

     Fixing Car I heard a story the other day about a man whose car had a flat battery. This was in the days when a car could be started by cranking it, so he got out the crank and started to wind the motor but it still wouldn’t start. So he lifted the bonnet (hood) of the car and poked around having a good look at the motor. Then he found the problem….there was a loose cable connection. He joined it up, wound the crank handle again and the motor shot into life. “Ah!! ” he thought, “so THAT was the problem!”

This is just like our prayer life. There are many times when we feel as though God is far away and not hearing our prayers. The trouble is a loose connection between us and God, and it is not until we join the connection that the power of God flows back into our life. Let’s look at some of these loose connections that can cut our fellowship with God.

One of these is having a right relationship with our spouse or other members of our families. This is one of the main causes of a broken connection, and we are told that husbands in particular, are to treat their wives right or their prayers will be hindered  (1 Peter 1:  ). Another one is having a bad attitude towards others.

Unconfessed sin….King David said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me!” (Psalm 51:  )

Wrong attitude to our money….it is not our own, but only what God has given us, so it is only reasonable to give Him His share of it.

Habitual and continuous disobedience will block our communion with God.

Cherished continual sin in our hearts…..is there something that we know displeases the Lord but we don’t want to give it up? This is a loose connection cutting the communication between us and God. The prophet Isaiah said, “Your sins have come between you and God like a thick cloud!”   (Isaiah 52:1)

So after thinking about these things, let’s fix these loose connections in our life, and have our communion with God restored again.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Why Problems?

ManKeith came in for lunch one day with a very sore back. He had been working on fixing our back deck which needed a large board to replace one with rot in it, and had twisted his back in man-handling this board. As it turned out, it was quite a while before he could get back and finish the job, taking several days of lying flat on his back and then being very careful walking around until it came right.

We all experience times of trials and problems as we go along in life and wonder why. Even worse, we wonder “Why me?” The Bible deals with this same question, and quite clearly tells us why. In  book of Hebrews chapter twelve we read….

“For the Lord disciplines the ones  He loves and chastises every son He accepts.

Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.”

So we see that it is for our own good, and that we will benefit from it if we take it the right way. Sometimes we need to take time out for meditation and reflection and if we are always too busy we miss out on these times. We can either choose to be resentful and grumpy in our pain, or we can take the attitude that it will soon pass and things will get better. It is all up to us!

Random Devotional Thoughts, Uncategorized

How Do You Stack Up?

BAPTIZ_FWe had a baptismal service at our church this morning when four young people were baptised. Each of them gave very clear testimonies as to why they wanted to be baptised, and how they had come to know the Lord for themselves. To them God was not just a force “up there”, but He was personally their Father in Heaven. How many people say the Lord’s prayer today starting with “Our Father which art in Heaven”, and they don’t know God as their Father at all! We wouldn’t dream of approaching just any man out there, and calling him “Father”  and asking Him to supply our daily food. Yet so many people do this without even thinking what they are saying. Let’s hope you aren’t one of these!

The speaker after the baptismal service, made it quite clear to the congregation that what these young people had done was not to gain favour with God to get them to heaven, but were going through this rite in obedience to what God had asked them to do. It is something that Jesus Christ told His disciples to do before He left this earth….”Go and teach all nations,  baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and see, I will be with you always”.

What a wonderful promise this is, that He gives to all who do as He asks!

Morning Musings

Anchor of Hope.

      Anchor  We had gone into a quiet bay for some rest and relaxation after a day of sailing, and dropped the anchor. But after a while we could see that we weren’t in quite the same place as we had been when the anchor went down. Somehow we had drifted, and were much further out in the bay. So we lifted the anchor, went 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.

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