Life Lessons

Looking Back.

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   We are coming to the end of another year. What a year it has been! A year like no other anyone has ever experienced. If we had been told this time last year all the events that were going to come upon us in the year 2020, we would not have believed it!

     To think that the whole world has been affected by what has been called Covid19. It has spread so far and so wide, that most people have forgotten the beginning of it all….just one little virus getting loose that eventually brought the whole world to a standstill!

    For some, there have been other traumatic things happening….perhaps the loss of a loved one or some accident that has turned their world upside down. No matter how smart mankind becomes, we cannot foretell the future. All we can do is to hope that 2021 will be a better year.

    But Christians have more than that to fall back on….we can say that although we don’t know what the future holds, at least we know the One Who holds the future! This makes all the difference as we move on into another new year. If we do not have this confidence, there is nothing to stop us getting it. It doesn’t cost us any money to get it, but it does cost us the experience of having to humble ourselves before a God who we don’t yet know, but Who is calling all people everywhere to come to Him.

   This is one of the reasons we are here on earth so that we can come to know Him while here and learn His ways. He will set us free of our addictions and bad habits, and fellowship with us every day.

   The thing that surprises me most, is that  people say they want to go to heaven when they die, and they speak at funeral services as though their loved ones have gone “up there”, but yet they feel most uncomfortable in a church building, let alone in  a church service! How do they think they are going to be able to stand being in a place that is holy, clean and righteous, singing praises to a God they have never met!!! This is something that we all need to think about here and now, even before this uncomfortable year has finished!!

Stories for Teens

What’s the Point?

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Sarah came in from school and threw her bag on the couch before slouching down on it herself.

“Oh, hullo Uncle Jeff! I didn’t see you there!”, she said as she saw him sitting there already. “I haven’t seen you for a while!”

“No, I’ve just come back from Australia,” he said as he reached for his cup of tea. “How are things going anyway?”

“Oh, alright I suppose,” she said, “but I sometimes wonder what the point is in it all!”

“What do you mean by that?” Uncle Jeff asked.

 “Aw, you know,” she said, “It’s the same old thing every day, and you never seem to get ahead!”

“You know, I think you are missing the point,” Uncle Jeff said, “You know, God has given everyone a purpose while we go through life, and that is to do the very best we can. Even if other people don’t seem to appreciate our efforts, at least later on we won’t have any regrets that we could have done better!”

“You know,”  Sarah said, taking a totally different tack, “our Bible Study leader said last week that we are all made in the image of God. How come?”

Uncle Jeff thought for a minute and then said, “Well. it does say that in the Bible, and that is our guide-line for what we believe.  It’s like this….we are all made by God’s hand and with some of His attributes. What does the Bible tell us the first things that God did were?”

“Well,” Sarah said thoughtfully, “He made the world and everything that is in it.”

“That’s right,” Uncle Jeff said, “And do you remember what He thought of the things He had made?”

“It says that God saw what He had made and that it was good,” Sarah said.

“What was the last thing God made?” Uncle Jeff went on “What did He say about that?”

Sarah thought for a minute and then said slowly, “It was a man, and it says that when He looked at everything then, it was VERY good!”

“You know,” Uncle Jeff went on, “God had great satisfaction out of all His creating power and looking at the birds, bees and flowers that he had made as well as the animals and then finally the man. Do you remember what God said when he saw that the man had no-one else for company? He said, ‘It’s not good for man to be alone! I’ll make someone else to be his helper!!’  And you know that those are the two things that God has put into the heart and mind of every single human being since that first day….satisfaction in creating things, and the need for a relationship.”

“Ye-e-s, I suppose so, “ Sarah said, “I know I enjoy seeing something I’ve made when it’s finished, and I like to show it to my friends”.

“That’s right,” said Uncle Jeff, “Even doing the simple things like baking a cake, or getting a meal ready gives us satisfaction, and even more so when we can share it with our friends and family.”

“Yes, I see that now,” Sarah said, cheering up somewhat, “I suppose we can say that that is what the point of doing things is!”

“That’s the girl!,” Uncle Jeff said, “ now let’s go outside and you show me those roses that Mum has been growing for the show!”

Life Lessons

Why is this Happening?

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I’ve been trimming and tying up my young rose plants to keep them as standard roses. They are two years old now, and if left, will become just a tangled head with branches out in all directions. They will not grow any taller if left like that either. I have a couple that are a year older than the ones I am now working on, and I had just left them to do their own thing. How I wish I had started earlier on training them! When the time came last winter to cut them hard back, one decided it had had enough, and just died on me. If we aren’t being constantly trimmed by the Master Gardener, when the time finally comes and we go through some fiery trial, we can’t take it, and give up altogether. It is sad indeed to see a person who once ran well, being used by God, and then some years later to see them become disillusioned and bitter older people!

    We too, are like these young rose plants, with each one of us needing to be tied strongly to the stake of Jesus Christ! If we aren’t rooted in Him and tied firmly to Him, we will just blow from side to side and our spiritual life will maybe get damaged beyond repair. Nor will we be able to be a thing of beauty to those who see us

    Another thing is, I look ahead to see how I want the finished rose plant to look like. If one shoot looks strong and healthy and is growing out from the main stem in a suitable place, I will tie it upright to the existing main stem, thinking I will let it grow in its new position and then when it is strong enough I will cut off all the other heads when they have finished flowering. Yes, what we are doing now may be useful and being involved in the Lord’s work, but He can see ahead to a better task for us to do, one which will take the main head even higher. It may hurt the plant to have one stem fastened upright in such a fashion, and it may hurt us to be tied in some way that gives us pain and restricts us now, but the end result will enable our character to be a thing of beauty and us be even more help to those around us.

It’s amazing how many lessons there are to be found in the garden, from weeding, to pruning, to spraying….all these things having to be attended to constantly.

 No wonder our Lord said, :” I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciple. (John 15:1-8)

Adult Testimonies

Bob’s “If only…”

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     As Bob came to in the darkness, he wondered where he was. There were unfamiliar sounds going on around him, and a distinct disinfectant smell. He  realised he was in a bed, but he was sure it wasn’t his own one. He tried to turn over and nothing seemed to be working. Whatever had happened to him?

   Ah, he remembered now. He had left the local pub at closing time and found his way to his car. He remembered driving towards home and over the bridge that spanned quite a sizeable river on the way, but nothing more after that. Bob had indeed driven over the bridge, but he had failed to see the corner immediately after it, and continued straight ahead up the bank where the car had flipped over. Bob had not been wearing his seat belt and he was thrown out. As a result his spinal cord was badly damaged leaving him a paraplegic. He was in hospital for a long time, and it took him several months before he admitted that his situation was actually his own fault.

   First of all he railed against the fact that his seat belt wasn’t on, but he was the one who had not buckled up. It never occurred to him that if he hadn’t been drinking until closing time, he would have been capable of driving safely, so that was another nail in his coffin of blame, as it were.  

   No-one knew when it finally dawned on him that perhaps God was speaking to him through this accident. It wasn‘t that he was a stranger to the things of God. There had been a time when he had made his decision to follow the Lord, and was enthusiastic in his attendance at his small local church. But the older men tended to curb his youthful enthusiasm and he became discouraged. There came a day when he heard some more criticism, and that was it as far as he was concerned. He had had enough, he said. If that was how they felt, then he was finished.

    Bob never attended a church service on a regular basis again, and in time, no-one would have recognized him as being a Christian. Years passed by, and his family arrived and grew up. In his time of reflection now in his hospital bed, he remembered different times when he felt that God was perhaps speaking to him.

     There was that time that he had been feeding hay out to his cattle and carelessly thrown the loose bailing twine into the cab of his ute. As he drove onto the road, he got out to shut the gate behind him, and as his feet became tangled in the twine he fell onto the road. A car came around the corner and nearly caught him before he got up. Bob wondered at the time if the Lord was speaking to him, but he mentally shrugged it off as coincidence, and let the opportunity go by.

     Then there was another time not long before this, when a visiting evangelist had come to the district. Bob attended one of the meetings, and was strongly moved to respond to the appeal when it was given at the end, but he thought of his drinking mates and what they would say to him. Just the same, he had to hold tightly to his seat with both hands to keep from making the move along the aisle when others were going down to the front.

“There’s still plenty of time”, he told himself.

Now he wondered if things would have been different if he had made that move back then. It began to dawn on him that perhaps all this was his own fault, and all because he kept shutting the thought of God out of his mind. “Perhaps God IS speaking me” he said to himself, “If I had taken the step when that preacher was asking people to come forward, perhaps none of this would have happened!” How right he was! He wouldn’t have been at the pub this particular night if he had done that!

   By the time Bob was discharged from the hospital and able to go home, he had confessed his willfulness  and disobedience to the Lord and received full forgiveness for it all. Bob was full of joy in his mind and heart now….not for the position he found himself in, but in the fact that now he had made his peace with God once more.  He was able to pray again, picking up where he had left off when a young man. But in spite of that, nothing could give back the years he had wasted, and this was a constant regret to him.

   He enjoyed the visits he had from other Christians who knew him, and to talk about the things of God was one of his greatest joys.   He now spent his days in his wheelchair looking out of the large windows of his living room across the town to the harbour in the distance. He had once served on the local harbour board, and was particularly interested in watching the container ships and tankers moving in and out of the harbour.

   He lived for a few more years, and told one of his visitors not long before he passed into the Lord’s presence, “You know, I would sooner be like I am now, and able to enjoy these times with the Lord, than to be what I was once, able to walk but still running away from God. It doesn’t pay!”

          The Apostle Paul wrote….. In case I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.       And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”

       . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.       (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Life Lessons

Never Too Old!

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We have just returned  from another motor home trip …..this time we went around the East Cape area of the North Island of New Zealand, mostly an area we have seen very little of. So we took our time this time, and spent nearly a week in this part of our country. When we got back, I was asked what the most memorable part of our trip was….without hesitation, I said, “Potholes!”

   We had travelled for six hours and covered about 120 ks in that time around Lake Waikaremoana in the middle of the North Island. The road here was unsealed and with a gravel surface, and shut down of things due to covid 19, the roads had got progressively worse and worse.

Also we weren’t able to see much of the lake due to the shrubbery that was growing on the roadside between us and the shore, but the small glimpses we got were fabulous!  A lot of the trip was through primeval bush growing on steep, steep hills.

    It was amazing to think that here we were in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the comfort of our motorhome, and being  able to enjoy these giants of nature with no effort on our part (except for the jolting of the potholes!!). To think that these trees had never been touched by man’s axe or saw, was really something. Seeing them like this reminded me of God’s power in creation, and in spite of the potholes, we couldn’t help but thank Him for being able to be here to see them!

   Another memorable thing about this trip was when we saw the oldest and largest pohutukawa tree in New Zealand, at a place called Te Araroa. We walked around it in amazement….it was so old that a great many of its enormous branches were lying on the ground around it, some of them having re-rooted. Not only that, but this ancient tree was still bearing flower buds….it was a bit early in the season for them to out yet, but I couldn’t help thinking that no matter how old or how infirm we are, or wherever we find ourselves, we can still bear flowers or fruit for our Master. Even a smile or a thank-you is a small bit of flower for Him, and will bring joy to others.

   So never give up or let ourselves think we are too old or useless to shine wherever we are!

Life Lessons

When Things go Wrong!

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     It has not been an easy year for most people. Events have had to be cancelled, and other family things like funerals and weddings have had to be put off due to the lock down levels, and depending which one we happen to be in at the time. People have lost their jobs, and others have lost money they have paid for overseas trips that could not be taken. None of these things are easy to put up with.

    It reminded me of the time we had some visitors from another area, and were taking them around the local sights. One of these was a glass blower at  work behind the gallery that was selling a lot of his work. There were some beautiful pieces on display, all brightly coloured and different shapes. The man was in his workshop at the back of the gallery which was open for people to watch him at work.

    We went in and up the stairs where we could look down on him plying his art. The furnace was heated up and the tongs he was using were red hot. As he pulled the shaped vase out of the heat, he pulled and twisted at the neck of it to form a shapely edge. But time and time again, he had to put it back into the heat because he wasn’t satisfied with how it looked.

    It reminded me of the Master Glass Blower at work in our lives, as He moulds and perfects His people to make them become what He wants them to be. We may not like the heat of the fire we have to go through, or the pulling and twisting that we are subject to, but when it is all over, we are more like the finished article that He wants us to be….a thing of beauty and fit for His use.

   So when we think of the events of this year and how disrupted many of them have been, let’s remember to allow them to make us better, and not bitter. Just one little letter different, but what a tremendous difference in the end result of our lives!

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”, Bob 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”, Bob 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.

    Bob hoped 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 then put them into practice .

   Bob 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.

   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 Bob that he wouldn’t be going any more….it just wasn’t convenient, he said.

   Bob 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.

    Bob 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 of 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”.

   Bob 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 had been unable to pray for Ozzie himself for some time, and felt that this was indeed a message from the Lord concerning him. What a sad plight to be in, and that was how Ozzie eventually died. His attitude was that as he had lived without God, he would die without Him!

   There is no need for anyone to be like Ozzie….God’s invitation is still valid for everyone….”Those who come to Me, will find Me!”

Random Devotional Thoughts

God’s Word at Work.

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    I was reading the verse from Hebrews 4:12 where it describes God’s Word as being ” quick (living) , and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

     There is nothing so convicting and convincing as God’s Word if we allow it to sink into our minds. It IS possible to shut one’s mind to it, but if we do that, it won’t be long before its influence on our ways and thinking will disappear and we will become hard and unyielding.

    This verse shows that it is like an extremely sharp two edged sword, cutting both ways, as it goes in and as it comes out…there is a story that illustrates this point perfectly….

   There was a man once who said he didn’t believe in all this God rubbish (as he put it). One of the old time evangelists came to his district and was holding meetings several times a week. One of our man’s friends persuaded him to go to one of these meetings.

“You know I don’t believe in all that stuff”, he said complainingly to his friend, “I’ll go just the once, but no more, mind!”

He sat through the meeting, working out all his arguments against the preacher in his mind. His chance came when the preacher offered to take him home.

“Well, Sir,” our man said, “I don’t believe all that stuff you told us tonight. What about…..?” and he presented his first argument.

The preacher was silent a moment and then he said, “I don’t know about that, all I know is that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin.”

Our friend was a bit taken aback. He hadn’t expected a reply like that. But he rallied and then put out his next argument which was guaranteed (he thought) to get the preacher’s hackles up.

    Again the preacher was silent a moment, and then he said, “Well, I haven’t heard that one before, but all I know is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin.”

Our friend wasn’t going to be deterred, and he thought of several more arguments that he felt sure the preacher had no answers for.

    But each time the preacher just quietly said, “Well, I don’t know about that…..all I know is that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin!”

     By this time they had reached our friend’s house and the preacher pulled up to let him out. Our friend gave one more parting shot as he left the car…”Well, I’m not coming back any more to hear that stuff!”

“That’s fine friend,” the preacher said, “But just remember,” as our friend went off into the darkness, “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleans us from all sin!”

   The preacher went home, prayed for our friend and didn’t expect to see him again. But God’s Word which had been used as a sword, and as a strong hammer which can break rocks began to work in his mind. A couple of nights later, the preacher heard a knock on his door just as he was going  to bed. He opened the door, and there stood our friend looking rather distraught and haggard.

“I haven’t been able to sleep a wink since that meeting the other night,”  he said, “All I can hear in my mind are those words, the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin….I can’t get rid of them. What do I have to do to put my mind at rest?”

“Come on in,”  the preacher said, “It’s never too late to talk about the things of God”. He was able to explain to our friend that the way to have peace in his mind, was simply to tell the Lord that he realised he was a sinner and needed to be made clean from all the bad thoughts and habits he had formed over the years.

   He gladly did this and became a different man as a result. He had different aims now, and went to different places. The old ways didn’t attract him any more. Now he could say, and mean it with all his heart….. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleans me from ALL sin!”

See what God has to say to YOU.