Monthly Archives: September 2021

My Life

God’s Preservation

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     There are so many things that we can thank God for….things that others might call a “coincidence”. But how much better to see God’s preserving hand in these mishaps that we experience.

    I remember one time when I was setting off down the hill from our place, out onto the road and speeding up as the road opened up. The road was narrow and windy, and to take the corner at the bottom, I cut across the corner and then saw another car approaching.  
I automatically put my foot on the brake so I could navigate back to my own side of the road, when horrors! The car spun around about three times out of control, flew across a deep ditch and landed up against a large tree facing the way I had come, with a gentle thud. It had all happened so quickly that I hardly realised what had happened!

   The other car passed by (he must have seen it all happen), and backed up and asked if I was alright. By this time, I had felt around and decided that nothing was broken on me, and there were no obvious breakages on the car. The windows  were all intact, the  motor turned off, and the door opened. But outside was a different story….the wheels didn’t look right, and horrors, the tyres were torn off! So when the man asked if was alright, I asked if he could run me back up the hill so I could find my husband and tell him what had happened which he did. I never saw that man again, and often wondered if he came that way regularly!

    That was the end of my part in the story….the men folk got the car back across the ditch, and put new tyres on it and it was able to be driven home without a scratch on the body. Amazing!

    It often gave me the shivers thinking about what could have happened to me…I could have ended up in a wheelchair with a broken back, or been in the hospital for weeks recuperating from injuries, or even worse, could have been killed. Truly the Lord sent His angels to preserve me that day!!

    Needless to say, I never went too fast down that hill again! But what a way to learn a lesson I should have known anyway!

    There are many ways that God preserves His people, and we should never cease to give Him thanks for this every day….we have no idea how many times He keeps us safe from things that we don’t see coming.

Grandma's Stories, Stories for Teens

Who’s Driving your Car?

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   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 said, “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 Him 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)

Life Lessons

Storms of Life.

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When the disciples experienced the worst storm of their life, they had been sent across the lake by Jesus Christ. The disciples were experienced fishermen who could read the weather signs and knew how to handle these sudden storms that whipped up the lake surface into a frenzy. Jesus knew all this, but He knew a storm was coming up that would test them to the maximum.  They hadn’t made a mistake that brought this upon them, they were there for the purpose of seeing God’s protection and power..

    Remember this….Jesus Christ knows the storm we are in at any given time. He could have stopped the storm coming to the disciples, but He wanted to show them His power. He knows the storm that I may be in right now, but He wants me to go through it so He can show me His power and refine the dross out of my life and strengthen the faith I have in Him.

     The Lord speaks to us in these three ways ….

In the storm….He comes to us through the storm, walking on the water…”I will never leave you”, He says.

Through the storm… He reminds us that He is there with us…”don’t be afraid”, He says, “trust Me”.

The storm within you….often when these storms come, they attack us from the inside. We are all in a turmoil because of circumstances beyond our control, and wonder where we are going to turn next. We must not be afraid of being afraid….storms always have an end. There will be a period of calm when it is over and then another one may come but because we have proved our Lord’s help with the first one, we have confidence within the next one.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)”

      Then we were reminded of the two houses that were built….one on the rock and one on the sandy beach edge. When the first storm came, the one on the rock stood firm, but the one on the sand fell and was destroyed.  So it is with us in life’s storms….we cannot build our house during the storm, we must have it built before the storm comes!  Remember…Jesus Christ is the Rock we must build on……He is the Lord of all our storms. Anything else is like shifting sand!