Monthly Archives: May 2020

Morning Musings

The New Normal!

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       At long last life is beginning to almost be normal, as we settle back into level two of the covid-19 pandemic. And yet for many people, it will never be normal again. There are those who will have lost loved ones at the worst,  or  their jobs and livelihood leading to despair if not panic. Still others will see their businesses dissolving under their eyes, even as they try to pick up the pieces. We have been able to resume some sports (with reservations), and Christians have been able to go back to their church gatherings under strict regulations.

     The authorities are doing their best to tide people over, not seeming to realise that at the end of the initial short period, things are still going to be the same. What to do? Dish out still more millions from the money tree? Try to create jobs out of thin air?

   These are very interesting times that we are living in and only time will show the final outcome. It is very interesting to think that with all of man’s inventions and yet more technology, yet the future cannot be accurately forecast. We know that things are not going to get back to the old normal, and that we will have to adapt even more in ways that we cannot imagine, even at this point in time. So we cannot predict exactly what is going to happen tomorrow, we can barely be sure of this evening!

    Every week that goes by there are new things happening that open up new scenes….for instance, who would have imagined that this latest event in America would cause such a rumpus right around the globe? Words like anarchy and arson flow into our minds, as we see the scenes of senseless destruction on our TV screens. These merely show us how close to the surface, this sort of thing is, in the hearts and minds of many people. It just show the contrast between this sort of behaviour and the words of Jesus Christ who said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives is what I am giving you. Don’t let your hearts be troubled or your minds be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

   So if you are feeling all  upset and uncertain,  respond  to God who gives peace as we come to Him in genuine and sincere enquiry. He says, “Those who seek Me will find Me” (Luke 11:9-10)

Life Lessons

Tracking.

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     Tracking ? We are now being expected to keep a track of everywhere we’ve been, the date and the time, what shop we’ve been into and how much we spent there, and on what! What next? We shouldn’t be surprised as these things have been predicted in the Bible for a couple of thousand years, but we could never see before how it would be possible. This is the stuff  that science fiction wrote about, and we all knew that is what it was…fiction. But is it? Not any more.

   Now there is the technology out there that is not only possible, but which we are being advised to put on our phones. See how easy it is, we are told. Merely having to swipe our phone under the scanner as we enter a shop, and all our transactions will be recorded. Short of our thoughts and intentions.

   But wait, as the advertisements say, there’s more! Soon, this will not merely be an advised action, but a compulsory one, one that will prevent us from buying or selling anything  without it going through our data base! Is that a scary thought, or just a sensible and easy course of action like using a credit card is today?

    Listen to this and see what it sounds like….  “woe, woe, O great city, for in a single hour your doom has come ! The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her because no-one buys their cargo any longer …..in a single hour such great wealth has been destroyed! All who make their living from the sea ….were shouting with weeping and mourning, woe, woe, O great city in which all who had ships in the sea got rich from her wealth, because in a single hour she has been destroyed!”  (this is found in the Bible in Revelation 18:10-20). We can see this happening under our very eyes with markets around the world closing down, and people losing their incomes.

   Never in living memory has a disease travelled so quickly or so far as the covid-19 has! Or with such far reaching effects which we have not yet seen the end of, only the beginning! Businesses have been closed down, factories are shutting as there are no more markets for their goods, refineries are closing down because there is no more call for their fuel with air lines stopping and  the world wide shut down. People are becoming unemployed more and more as these things happen.

    We may get on top of the covid-19 virus, but we haven’t seen the end of its effects  yet, and who knows whether it will not come back in an even more virulent form? Let’s take heed to the invitation that is given by Jesus Christ Himself….Come to Me, all you who are heavy laden (or afraid) and I will give you rest (peace of mind) Matthew 11:28.

Morning Musings

Beginnings and Endings.

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The End and the Beginning….

    Just as surely as every experience  has a beginning and an end, so we can be sure that nothing will go on for ever in the same way.

    When we entered this period of lockdown, we didn’t really know what it would entail until we were in the middle of it.  After the initial novelty of it had worn off, then there came a period of restlessness hoping it would hurry and come to an end as we wanted  the freedom of going and doing what WE wanted and not what we were told to do!

   Now that time has come to pass in part, and we are once more able to get out and about in our cars and visit with our friends with certain stipulations. But there are still regulations to abide by, and we are beginning to wonder how long these will last for, and how long the enforced closure of all businesses will take to get over financially. With so many losing their jobs due to closures, especially in the tourist industry, it will take months and years to get over it all.

    If we had been told at the beginning of the year, what was going to happen we wouldn’t have believed it possible. In just the same way, the things that the Bible foretells that are going to happen seemed  just as impossible, but now we can see that what God decrees,  WILL come to pass in the most extraordinary ways! Some might ask if God sent this corona virus to sweep through the world, but He has certainly allowed however it started, to proceed with vicious speed until every county in the world has felt its cold fingers scratching at their door. Perhaps He wants people to look up to Him, and this is one way of getting this to happen.

    But instead of asking Him to bring it all to an end, man is feverishly trying to find the cure for it. This will only happen as God decrees, as all cures for ills and diseases come from Him in the first place.

More than ever before, God wants us to ask that His “will, will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. 

Adult Testimonies

God’s Patience.

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The Lord said…..  “My Spirit will not always strive with man…”  (Genesis 6:3a)  The following  story illustrates this point very clearly.

“Hi Ozzie”, Keith sang out as he drove up to the house, “Are you coming out with me tonight to the church service?”

“Aw, I can’t make it tonight”, Ozzie said, “We’ve got a visitor coming for tea, so that cramps my style a bit. Maybe next Sunday.”

“OK, That’s a pity”, Keith  said as he swung the car around.

   He went down the road in a thoughtful mood. He had been taking his cousin Ozzie to the church services for nearly twelve months, and he had noticed a big difference in him in that time. His language had cleaned up, and he seemed to be more cheerful and not so complaining.

    Keith hoped that Ozzie had been really listening to the different preachers as they spoke each Sunday night, and not just been enjoying the singing and company of the other people there. After all, that was only part of it all. He thought of those verses in the New Testament where Jesus frequently said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.

    He knew it was one thing to hear what is being said, but quite another to let the words sink into one’s mind and then down to the heart and put them into practice .

Keith knew what it had been like for himself….once he was faced with the facts, there was no turning back and now he couldn’t have been happier. Now he really wanted his cousin Ozzie to know the same peace of mind and heart that he had found in believing the things concerning Jesus Christ..

   But from that time on, Ozzie seemed to be making more and more excuses as to why he couldn’t make it on Sunday nights. The day came when he told Keith  that he wouldn’t be going any more….it just wasn’t convenient, he said.

   Keith was disappointed, but he knew that people have a free choice. He had made his mind up himself to continue going to the church services and as he did, his understanding grew. He wasn’t going to let Ozzie’s attitude change his mind.

   Over the intervening years, they met occasionally and still did certain jobs together (both were farming), but the old camaraderie was missing. More years went by, nearly twenty in fact.

    Keith was visiting his father one day. “You know, I had a visit from Ozzie the other day”, his father said. “He said a very strange thing. He told me that he’d had a very vivid dream one night recently…. He dreamed he saw a big blind coming down from the sky and he knew that it was between him and God. And then he said, ‘You know Unc, I couldn’t come to God now, even if I wanted to!’ I really didn’t know what to say to him”.

   Keith knew the verse in the Bible where God says He won’t strive with people for ever, that there comes a day when He will take people at their word, and leave them alone. He was very sad to hear that, and yet he himself had been unable to pray for Ozzie for some time, and felt that this was indeed a message from the Lord concerning him.

   We do well to take heed to the consequences of Ozzie’s choice and realise what a sad plight he was in. That was still his attitude when he eventually died.

Grandma's Stories, Stories for Teens

It’s Too Hard!

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“Oh, it’s too hard!” Sarah cried out in disgust, and threw her study book down. Uncle Jeff was there having a cup of tea with the grown-ups in the other room, and he came in just in time to hear Sarah say this. “Is that your study  for this week Sarah?” he asked, “What is it about, that you think is too hard?”

“Well, it’s that part that talks about doing what God wants us to do, and then we find we can’t manage it”, Sarah said, “And that’s exactly what I’m finding! I tell God I’m sorry for the mean things I’ve done and said, and promise I won’t do it again, and then by the time next week comes, I’m right back to square one!”

“What sort of things do you want to do, Sarah?” Uncle Jeff asked.

“Well, I want to do what God wants me to, but when someone does something mean to me then I fly off at them, and I know that’s not right and not pleasing God”.

“Well, you know”, Uncle Jeff said thoughtfully, “I used to be like that too. I always desperately wanted to do what God wanted me to and then I would fail and feel miserable. But one day I realised that I was putting things the wrong way around. I saw that it didn’t depend on me doing anything at all!”

“Really?” said Sarah, “Well, what DOES it depend on then?”

“I heard a preacher that said it is three “D”s …we have to DEPEND on God, DIE to   ourselves, and do it DAILY, and I realised that it isn’t what I do, it is what God does for me!”  

“Really?” Sarah said again, “What exactly does all that mean Uncle Jeff?”

“It’s not a question of US hanging onto God, it’s a question of us letting God hang onto us. It is HIS work IN us, not our work FOR Him that matters.”

“Does that mean we don’t do anything then?” asked Bobby who had been sitting there quietly all through this conversation and suddenly piped up, “That’s good, then I don’t have to try to be good!”

“It’s not quite like that”, Uncle Jeff said, “It means we have to ask God to help us because we can’t do it ourselves, and we have to ask that every day!”

“Oh, I see what you mean”, Sarah said, “It means that we die to things we want to do, and then depend on God to help us do this every single day!”

“Yes”, said Bobby with a grin, “That means you don’t grumble about doing the dishes and other things when Mum asks you to help!”

“Mmm yes,” said Sarah slowly, “And it isn’t going to be easy either but I’ll try my best!”

“That’s right, my girl!” said Uncle Jeff, “Remember, we have to let go, and let God do it in us!” (Romans 7:14-25)