Random Devotional Thoughts

How Clearly Can You See?

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This week I had an operation to remove cataracts that had been creeping insidiously over my eyes for some years now. I knew that my eyesight wasn’t as clear as it should have been, and when the optometrist told me  what the problem was, I knew something had to be done about it, so appointments were made and the operation done. What a difference it has made! My spectacles have been made redundant, and even for reading they are totally useless! Going down the hill into our town, I couldn’t believe how clear the trees were that covered the far hill….I can now see each individual tree! The horizon is clear cut too, and the colours brilliant!

      That is the plus of clear eyesight, but the negative side is all the cobwebs that festoon my living room that I didn’t know were there!

      It made me wonder just how clear our spiritual eyesight is…. there are many things that creep  in unawares, clouding our perceptions of things. Especially in this day and age when “every man believes what is right in his own eyes”. We are told that things we once believed implicitly, are now just “our opinion”, despite what God says about them. If that were really so, how would we know what is right and what is not just our wishful thinking?

   An old friend once had the following ditty stuck on the dashboard of his car….”God says it, I believe it, and THAT settles it!!” If we follow that saying, we will have peace of mind and heart.    If what I believe the Bible says, is NOT right, then I haven’t lost anything at all, but if my beliefs ARE right, then I have everything to gain, and my spiritual eyesight will be as clear as a sharply focused photo. It doesn’t pay to push these things into the background, but bring them out into the open and examine them thoroughly….is what God says right, or is my thinking right?

Stories for Littlies

Differences!

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I heard a sermon recently  concerning how all believers are part of the body of Christ, and as such, need to work together in unity…we are to concentrate on the things that unite us, and forget the things that are different. It reminded me of this children’s  story….

    Jack and his sister Sue were squabbling out in the yard. Jack was playing with his new toy truck, and Sue wanted to have a turn. She got very cross when Jack picked it up and ran inside. She followed him and tried to take it from him . “Leave it alone”, Jack shouted, “It’s a boy’s toy! Girls don’t play with trucks! They’re too dumb! They play with silly dolls and things!”   “Mum!” Sue wailed, “I’m  not dumb, am I?” Mum tried to keep the peace. “Of course not,” she said, “But you ARE different to Jack just the same, not silly or dumb, just different! You are both part of our family and we love you both the same. We need you both.”   Sue quietened down and left Jack to his truck while she ran to get her doll. “Not silly”, she thought, “My dolly is the best after all!”     Jack made loud engine noises, and ran his truck around among the cushions on the floor. “Silly girls!” he muttered.

    That night, after Jack had got into bed, he started thinking about what he would do with his truck the next day. His thoughts got fainter and fainter as he drifted into sleep. Suddenly he heard voices. Somehow he knew it was his head talking. It was saying to his feet….. “I don’t need you! I’m the important one! I’m at the top and you are only at the bottom end of Jack!”    “Don’t be silly”, said the feet, “Where would you go without me? But I’m a lot better than the hands, they are only halfway down Jack!”  The hands answered in a high crabby voice, “And what would put the socks and shoes on you if it weren’t for me? Besides, my fingers are a lot longer than your toes!!”    “My toes might be short, but they are just as important as your silly fingers! Remember when my little toe was sore last week? I had to hobble around to save it getting hurt worse!”      “Be quiet!” the head commanded in a loud voice, “I’m getting tired of listening to you fighting! You ALL need each other. And I need you all too. Who would put the food in my mouth if the hands didn’t work? And where would we all go if  the feet didn’t take us? It’s quite true that when one thing hurts, we all hurt with it. Why, I felt that sore toe too when it got hurt. So be quiet, and be satisfied with what you are. We are ALL important, we are just different, that’s all.  And we are all part of Jack!”

     Jack woke up with a start. It seemed so real. His different parts all arguing with each other? How silly could they be! As he snuggled down under the blankets again, he thought how glad he was that he had all those parts and that they all did different things for him. He still remembered that dream the next morning, and then thought how he and Sue had been fighting the day before. Of course they were different! She was a girl and he was a boy. But they were all part of the same family. Perhaps he could let Sue have a turn today.

Life Lessons

Who are You Following?

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    I’ve been watching a documentary on a man following migrating geese in the Northern Hemisphere, and what a fascinating watch it has been! It reminded me of the parables that our Lord told His disciples, taking things they could see and drawing lessons from them  illustrating the truths of God to them.

     The man in our story determined that these geese would know him as their parent, and he watched over the eggs every day, talking to them as they developed. Isn’t that just like our Father in Heaven watching His creatures on earth right from conception? The Psalmist in the Bible says….I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mother’s belly  (Psalm 22:10)  Some of us have needed to be called many times before we realised this, while others have had the desire for the things of God right from a very early age.  Whichever way it happened, God has had His hand on us right from the time we were born, and He will never let us go.

      When these chickens eventually hatched, the man was there with them as they came out into their new environment. Like many newborn creatures, they identified with the first moving thing they were aware of, and in this case it was the man who had watched over them so faithfully.

      As he walked along the paddock, the baby geese followed him, and in time they began to fly. As they did this, he took to the air beside them in his microlight plane. Where he went, they followed, and every night he brought them back to the safety of the pen. As he fed them, he would chatter away to them in their language as near as he could follow it.

    There were eight of these young geese that were hatched out together, and at last the instinct began to burn within them to fly to a warmer climate for the winter. There were many dangers on the way, and the young geese had to learn which things to keep away from. Sometimes they took notice of the man in his microlight beside them, while other times they had to learn from their own mistakes. How like this we are! If we would only take heed to what God tells us in His Word, what a lot of trouble we would save ourselves! Again, the Bible says, How shall a young person cleanse his ways? By taking heed to Thy Word. and, Your Word I have hidden in my heart so I will not sin against You (Psalm 119: 9, 11).

     One of these dangers was a wind farm which tended to break up the flight path of these migrating geese, but as they began to separate, the man called out to them and they regrouped in formation following his microlight.

    One evening, they could see a golf course below them and what a delightful place it seemed. All that green grass and blue ponds called to them, but there were hidden dangers there too, in the balls that came flying at them from those smooth looking greens. This reminds us of how what looks inviting and tempting can sometimes lead to disaster. Our birds were fortunate in that none of those flying balls hit them, or interfered with their journey. Unfortunately, we don’t always  get off as freely as our birds. Sometimes we suffer the consequences of our own behaviour, and other times God steps in with an accident or some other way to bring us up with a round turn. What sometimes seems a total disaster, God can turn into good….Joseph could tell his brothers that what they meant for evil to him, God turned it into good for all of them (Genesis 50:20) and Paul tells us in the New Testament that ALL things work together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28)

      But this was not the end of the journey for our birds, and once again they all took to the air. The man knew what lay in store for them, and he knew what the end would be….they would have to leave these lush looking grounds and go it alone into the wide blue sky without him at their side. But they were not totally alone….even though the man could not go the rest of the way with them, a flock of migrating geese from elsewhere caught up with them, and our birds joined in with them and they were able to put into practice what the man had taught them up to this point.

    This is where our parable changes. As we go towards our heavenly goal, we do not have to fear being left alone at the end of our journey….it is not a crowd of heavenly beings that join with us, but our Lord Himself who takes us to Himself, even through death….He will never leave us. We only need to hang onto the words of Psalm 23 to have this assurance….even in the Valley of the Shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff comfort me.

     Let’s see that we each one do this, for it is the only way of no fear in our life journey right through to the end.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Why Pain?

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I had just pulled out the rest of the summer plants which were well and truly finished, from the main border of the garden. I usually planted fresh plants this time of the year, to give a profusion of colour the following spring. So I followed this pattern this year, and then we had a week of wet weather. Even though the plants were liberally sprinkled with snail bait, nearly half of them ended up being eaten, and my border was ruined.

    I had striped agapanthus planted in another part of the garden, so I dug some of them out, split them up, and replanted them along the border. They were quite difficult to get apart, but I persisted and eventually had them where I wanted them. Now they have to get rooted, grow and then flower where they have been put.

     I couldn’t help thinking that in spite of the pain the plants felt, yet they were now where the gardener wanted them to be, and their job was to grow and flower. In the same way, pain we experience in life is sometimes unpleasant, but we are still to grow and flower in our new situation. Life never stands still for any of us, and we sometimes have to face facts and be prepared to make changes. Let’s always remember this and give thanks to God for the new situations we find ourselves in, and do what we can to be positive and a light for Him  no matter what.

Miracles

Whose Job?

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Hullo, this is God, I will be handling all of your problems and concerns today.  That’s My job!

Your job is to give them to Me and then trust Me to deal with them. Have a great day!!

       We were staying with a friend for a couple of days, and this note was on the inside  of the door of their toilet room. It reminded me of the little ditty based on Philippians 4:6 in the Bible which says…                If ever you are in a fix, remember Philippians four and six! This says (depending which translation of the Bible you are using)…. Don’t worry about ANYTHING. Instead, pray about EVERYTHING! And whatever happens, don’t forget to give thanks for the answer!

    We saw this put into practice one weekend, when we were in charge of a girl’s camp. The visiting speaker was from down country, and he had chosen this verse as the weekend’s lesson. So at the evening meal on the first day, we all learned to say it the way he instructed…with great emphasis on the “Anything” and the “Everything”. He gave a short talk about what it was saying and later on we all went to our dormitories. He and his wife were sleeping in an outside cottage with their car parked beside it.

    When he got up in the morning and looked outside, horrors! His car was gone!! That was bad enough, but in the front up under the driver’s seat, was a packet with a couple of month’s rent that one of his friends had asked him to pick up for them, amounting to several hundred dollars. After breakfast, he got up and told the girls what had happened.

“Now,” he said,  “ We are going to put our memory verse  into practice. What did it say?”

The girls remembered it and recited it all together.

“Yes,” he said, “And what do we have to remember after telling God all about it?”

One bright young thing put up her hand and said, “We have to say thankyou for the answer no matter what happens!”

    That day probably would have been one of the hardest days that that man ever had to go through. Thoughts running through his head would have been, “How are we going to get home?”  and, “Will the police be able to find the car? I hope that rent money is still safe there!”

   However, he got through the day with the rest of his talks and the girls’ programmes, and once more took the girls through the memory verse that night.

    He got up early the next morning, still anxious, and looked around not feeling particularly thankful. But then he could hardly believe his eyes. Down at the entry gate he could see a car parked under the trees. And what’s more, it looked like his car! So he ran down the driveway, and sure enough it WAS his car. He opened the door and saw the keys there, and then put his hand under the seat, and sure enough the rent money hadn’t been touched!!

    How pleased he was to find all this! We can imagine how much he would have given thanks to God for having brought everything back to him safely ! At breakfast that morning, he could hardly wait to tell the girls how God had answered his prayers with a YES! What an example it was to each of them, and something that we leaders never forgot.

Life Lessons

Being a Man!

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      I came across a podcast this week which made quite an impression on me. It talked about the difference between being a man and being a boy, and shows how in men not taking their proper role in life, whether in business or in the home, they have lost their right role in being a man, and have become merely a boy again!

It talked about how in the Bible times, the men sat in the gate as protectors and law givers, not as those who laid down the law, but as those who upheld the law. A real woman back then was not a downtrodden second rate person, but one who upheld her man, and respected what he said, teaching her children to do the same. She was busy from morning to night, always doing something constructive. Her husband could trust her implicitly to always do the right thing, and he didn’t have to worry about anything that was going on in the home. (Proverbs 31:23-30)

    His neighbours and townspeople that he knew, all knew that he was an upright person. He also taught his boys to treat their mother and sisters kindly, and to respect them. This teaching started when they were little boys, and they knew that even when they were playing boisterous games, not to go too far and hurt their sisters in doing it.

    When this principle is forgotten and put to one side in the interest of “equality”, the men lose their authority and become just one of the boys again. They forget to come home on time, but prefer the company of their “mates” thus creating a vicious circle. The wife puts the uneaten meal to one side, and the children go to bed without seeing their father…father has become a “boy” with no responsibilities!

    Manhood is not about oppression. It is virtue. Duty, service. That’s what our whole life is supposed to be. At the heart of manhood and at the heart of woman hood is love. Love is patient and kind and selfless. It’s not irritable. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t insist on doing things “my way”. It rejects darkness. It rejoices in faith, and hope.

That’s manhood. At its finest.

    This  principle needs to be spread far and wide, and maybe we’ll get the men back, but we must remember too, that it is a two way thing. The women need to uphold their men, and support them in all their finest aspirations. The podcast finished up by saying….. “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times….a vicious circle!

    We are in the — in the era of hard times. Because weak, pathetic men have allowed themselves to be stomped into oblivion with lies. Women need men like fish need a bicycle. Really? Really? Men can get pregnant! These are all lies. Men need women. Any good husband knows — no. Let me rephrase that. Any good husband will do anything for his wife.

    But that actually does come from a place of love, and good women are the same. They may not understand, but they just want their husband to be happy. Hard times are here, because we have had weak men. But hard times create strong men.  That means, a new era of good men are just over the horizon.

It’s our job to raise them. It’s our job to encourage them. It’s our job to be what we should be, ourselves.”

Life Lessons

Are we Feeling Flat?

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We were down the street yesterday and when I got back to where my husband was patiently waiting, and he went to start the car, all it would do was give a flat sounding “brrrrrrr” sound. So he said, “We’ll have to get someone to come with jumper leads to start it and I’ll have to get a new battery!” And that is what happened.

    But it reminded me of how we can’t function properly as far as God is concerned without a good battery either.  We have to keep ourselves with a full battery by reading God’s Word .  Otherwise, we will go nowhere, and be good for nothing as far as He is concerned.

     It  is  like our prayer life too. There are many times when we feel as though God is far away and not hearing our prayers. But the trouble is that we have a flat battery or 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 things 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 flat battery, and we are told that husbands in particular, are to treat their wives right or their prayers will be hindered  (1 Peter 3:7).

      Another one is having a bad attitude towards others, and unconfessed sin….King David said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me!” (Psalm 66:18)

    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 continual disobedience will block our communion with God, as will a cherished sin in our hearts…..are we doing  something that we know displeases the Lord but we don’t want to give it up? This is a loose connection that causes a flat battery that will cut the communication between us and God, and we will go nowhere. 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, get a new battery and have our communion with God restored again.

Devotional Poems

Where do I get Comfort From?

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       The last few times, we have been thinking about the perilous times we are living in, and the panic that some people are experiencing, and even those who have God’s hope within are feeling the strain of these days of restrictions, rules and mandates.    Recently, I’ve been reading the book of Psalms, and what a lot of comfort there is in these! Even if they start off on a doleful note, they nearly all end up looking to God above and taking comfort from Him! Truly, there is no other way to receive  comfort of a lasting sort apart from what He can give us!     Let’s look at Psalm 116 and see what we can get from it….

I love the Lord for He has heard, My supplications,  every word, Because He hears when I call, He brings me up from depths of gall. Even when we feel down in the dumps, God will hear our every cry to Him….there is another little ditty I sometimes remind myself of…  “Whenever I am in a fix, I’ll think  of Philippians four and six!” . This says,  “Don’t worry about ANYTHING, Instead pray about EVERYTHING! And DON’T forget to give God thanks for the answer!”

We may be sad and full of woe, He’ll free me from my every foe! He is the Gracious One above, He is the God of righteous love.    We don’t just have the foes of things we can see…there are other foes that attack us. Worries about our family, ill health that might be lurking and making us feel down, or even broken relationships. But as we take all these to the Lord in prayer, we can feel our spirits lift, and  know that He has all our worries in His hands. But we have to remember to leave our worries behind, and that’s not easy, I know. But it’s no use taking them to the Lord in prayer and then picking them up again and taking them away with you!!!

Return unto your rest my soul, He delivers and makes us whole, From death and tears, and feet that fall, He will deliver from them all.    

These few lines remind us that He is the Great Deliverer….we just have to hang onto this in faith. The Bible says  that if we don’t have faith, we can’t receive anything from Him (Hebrews 11:6)  It also says that those who seek WILL find (Matthew 7:7-8)

What can I to the Lord now give, For the fact I move and live? I’ll take salvation that’s His gift, Pay my vows, my voice I’ll lift!     This verse shows us that we have to have a thankful heart….this is what God is looking for from us. We all feel disappointed if we give a gift to someone, and they just take it with no thanks given, and no appreciation for it. How many of God’s gifts we take for granted…we never think to say thankyou for our homes, for the other blessings we have, for the good health that we enjoy, and for the friendships and family that we have. These are all gifts from God….too often all we do is complain and grumble if things don’t work out as we would like! Most of all, He is offering us salvation from our sins and shortcomings….have we even bothered to take this, let alone give thanks for it??

Precious in the sight of God, Are those who in His ways have trod.   These last lines of this psalm remind us how God views His people as being precious. Not only in our lives as we  look to Him, but also when it comes to leaving this earth for ever. He says in verse 15 of this psalm…. “Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of His saints!”  This is because He will have them with Him forever….there will be no more parting from Him, and we will see Him face to face….what a glorious prospect His people have! No wonder the Psalmist could end this Psalm by saying, “Praise the Lord!!”

See what God has to say to YOU.