All posts by Gwenyth

I live on the outskirts of Whangarei, the northernmost city in New Zealand. I enjoy many things, ( writing amongst them), have been married to Keith for sixty-one years, have three married daughters, nine grandchildren and seventeen great- grandchildren who are scattered in various countries. No cats and no dogs as they would cramp our life-style.. We are obviously retired, but were farming further north before moving to the town over thirty-five years ago. We attend one of the local churches across the same side of town that we live.
Adult Testimonies

Neil.

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     We went to the funeral last week of an old friend of many years. We had seen him periodically over the years since we all grew up together, and he was always a joy to meet. His hearty “Ho,ho,ho” would ring out during the conversation each time, and he never failed to ask “How are doing Brother?”  We knew what he meant, and also knew what he wasn’t asking. My mind went back to the time that Neil became a Christian….this is how it happened….

    We grew up together in a small country area that was serviced by a large timber mill where most of the men folk of the district were employed. It was the sort of place where everyone knew everyone else and all of their business as well. The  district was sort of loosely divided into those who attended the local church and those who didn’t….Neil was one of those who didn’t.     There were about half a dozen young fellows at that time in the early nineteen-fifties who were at a loose end at the weekends and who used to get together and roam around the road (there was only the one road in the place!). One Sunday afternoon one of the men who went to the church was on his way home from delivering the children who had been to the Sunday School and he stopped when going past this group of loitering young chaps. “Hey,” he said as he pulled up, “Why don’t you guys come to the service tonight? We’ve got a good preacher speaking, you want to come and hear him!”     So later on most of the group did turn up at the service, sitting rather sheepishly at the back of the church. There was some hearty singing to the old pedal organ playing the hymns, and then the preacher spoke. He was indeed very interesting, talking about the way the stars were all put in place  by the Great Creator, and then telling the timeless story of Jesus Christ.

   For the next few Sundays, the group turned up again at the church, and then after that most of them drifted off having lost interest. But for some reason Neil kept on going, and one of his mates turned up as well. The next Sunday, Neil was walking along the road heading for the church when Keith pulled up beside him in his old Morris 8 car. “Where are you going?” he asked. “I’m off to church”, Neil said. “Well, hop in,” said Keith, “That’s where I’m going too!”

So for the next few Sundays, the two boys went to the little church together. There was a variety of preachers, some of them local men and other visitors who came and preached the old, old story of how Jesus Christ came to earth to pay the price of sin for all people.     Gradually these truths began to sink into the hearts of these two young men and they became convinced of the truth of what they were hearing and turned to the Lord in all sincerity. Their other old mates left them alone now, knowing that they weren’t interested in the old ways of loitering around the roads.      Neil spent every spare minute with Keith and the two of them would talk of what they were learning from the Bible and from the church services. Later on Neil left the district and moved to the big city. Over the years he had his ups and downs, as we all do, and for a period neglected his Bible reading. But when things got a bit tough for him, he turned back to the Lord with all his heart.

    Keith met up with him again one day, and said, “You seem to be happy all the time….why is that?” “Well, it’s like this”, Neil said, “I know I wandered away from the Lord for a while, but I realised that I was in the wrong, and I asked  God for forgiveness for my slack way of life. There are things in my life that I can’t change now, but I’ve confessed it all to the Lord, and I’m back into reading the Bible again. That’s why I’m always happy!”     It was always a joy to meet up with him after that, and to hear his cheerful “Ho,ho,ho” which preceded his conversation. So it was a shock to hear that he had had a severe stroke which he didn’t recover from. Keith felt honoured when he was asked to take his funeral service, and this was the story he told about Neil during the service.

   Of the original group that had wandered the roads on those Sundays long ago, some had passed on, but there were still a couple of them at the funeral service. They are old men now, and have never come to see what Neil saw all those years ago and sadly they haven’t made preparations for this, the greatest trip of their lives that will overtake them shortly. This is the trip that Neil prepared for, so that we can be confident of where he is now…. rejoicing in the presence of his Saviour in heaven!

Life Lessons

Don’t Leave it Too Late!

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   In our Daily Bible reading, we came to the story of how God told Moses to get the people of Israel prepared to leave the land of bondage that they were in. But of course the king of Egypt didn’t want to lose his slaves that were building his great edifices, so each time Moses went to him and said, “The Lord says to let My people go to worship Me”, that the king refused to even contemplate the matter. That is when God sent the ten plagues one after the other until in desperation he finally almost pushed them out of his land when the eldest son in every Egyptian family mysteriously died  at the same time.     The interesting thing in this story, is that at first the king “hardened” his heart, but then after  the first few times of refusing to let them go, we read that it was God who  hardened the king’s heart. How could this be, we might wonder. Why would God do this and still send the plagues on the land?

      If a person persistently refuses to hear God’s message, then one day He will take them at their word, and they will lose all desire to follow Him. The following story illustrates this point perfectly…..      Many years ago, a cousin of ours showed some interest in the Gospel message, and we took him to a lot of the church services where the Gospel was plainly preached. He was clearly touched but never came to the point of actually making a commitment to become a Christian. So he dropped off going with us, and we lost touch with him.    A year or so later, he called to see my father-in-law, and must have been talking about health problems. Then he said “You know Uncle, I had a vivid dream the other night. I dreamed I was in a wide open space, and I knew that God was up there somewhere behind the clouds. Then I saw a great big blind come down between me and where God was, and I just know that I couldn’t come to Him now, even if I wanted to!”

    Shortly after this conversation, he took ill and passed away still in that frame of mind. What a lesson for each of us to learn! God says….”My Spirit will not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3) , and although He has great patience, it eventually wears thin and ceases….He takes us at our word.  We have to be careful we don’t pass this point of no return!

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)

Random Devotional Thoughts

Missing Out!!

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    I had been having a lot of trouble with the files on my computer. For some reason, they kept disappearing….I would put an afternoon in working on one, click on close and when the sign came up asking to save it or not, I would click on that and then turn it off. Next time I would open it, it would present me with an empty file! 

    It was most frustrating to say the least, and in the end I would save it under another name to keep it. I was able to find out in the end, that I should save it before clicking the off button, and so far there has been no further trouble!

    It reminds me of what it must be like in Christian things….to spend  your life going to church, listening to the sermons, maybe helping out in different ways, and even to call God, “Lord”, and yet to not know Him in a personal way or  to be able to call Him “Our Father” from personal experience.

     There will be those who get to death’s door, and not have Him to take them through. There is a parable in Matthew 7:21-23, where the Lord talks about those who get to Heaven’s gate, and God says “Depart from Me! I never knew you!” They will reply saying, “But Lord, we’ve cast out demons in Your name, and prophesied too, as well as done many  other wonderful things!” But God will still say , “Depart from Me! I never knew you!”

    So it pays to take stock of oneself, to see just where we are at with Him. If we have our special time alone with Him, reading His Word (the Bible) and talking with Him each day,  then we know that we know Him, and that He will welcome us into His eternal home when the time comes for us to leave this earth.

Life Lessons

God Knows Best!

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Another one of our friends has been diagnosed with cancer, and only given a short  while to live . We feel so much for his wife and family….here is a man who is living for the Lord and witnessing for Him, and now the Lord is saying, “Come home, My son, I want  you to be with Me now!”

   I remember another well known Christian speaker who also had the same diagnosis and he felt that his work for the Lord was being cut short. He wept and asked for prayer that he might be spared to continue this, not seeming to realise that the work he was doing was actually God’s work, more than his work!

   “As for God, His way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:31)….this thought kept running around in my head ever since hearing about our friend and his prognosis. A godly man, who was endeavouring to serve God all his days, to be struck down like this! We do not understand the ways of God. We are told that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts  (Isaiah 55:8-9).     We know that we are told to pray earnestly and in company of others seeking the same thing, but we have to remember that God is Sovereign…each one of us belong to Him and He has control over us….we cannot demand things of Him, even when our wishes seem to line up with Scripture. Our times are in His hands…everything we have has come from Him, and we are to hold them lightly, not grasping them and saying, “They are mine!” We have to be thankful for the good things we have and have had in the past, and be ready to yield them up to the One who gave them to us.

   It is so hard to know what to say to the family concerned that will be a comfort to them. They know all the Scriptures, they have faith that God can and does heal at times, but there are many godly people who have had to watch their loved ones slip away leaving them bereft… they have only God to turn to then and He will be more precious to them than ever.

   What more can be said? We can only say in our prayers the words of our Lord Jesus….”Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will !”  (Matthew 26:39)

Random Devotional Thoughts

The Easter Story

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The Easter Story inspired the following thoughts….we too often sanitise the Bible stories, but reality would be very different….

Sitting Down They Watched Him There.

We read these words in the peace and quiet Forgetting the crowds, the noise, the riot, That surrounded our Lord so long ago, When rulers had wickedly taken Him so. The noise, the cries, and the prisoner’s grunts, The shouts of the soldiers, the awful thumps, Of the nails going into the human flesh, As they lay on the scars and bruises so fresh; The heat and the dust that rose in the air, The scorning of those who were standing there. The laughing and jeering of the soldiers who, Were casting lots for His garments too. The thieves were cursing Him to His face, Get us down and out of this place! Then we’ll believe that you truly are King And one day Your kingdom You’ll really bring” Suddenly one turned and said to his mate, We really deserve all that’s on our plate, But this Man here has done nothing amiss, Lord, remember me now in spite of all this ” The Saviour looked and in tones soft and light, Said “Today you’ll be with Me, in Paradise bright Joy filled the heart of this one so  depressed The noise and  the dirt were now repressed In spite of those who watched them there, The rulers uncaring, or friends in despair, The soldier declaring ‘This IS God’s Son, He only is the righteous One! ” His Spirit given up, the night now was near, The people had gone, the silence was clear. Still there were those who were watching Him there When His body  was put in the tomb with  care, The guards would wait the next  nights out, No one could move while they were about. But in spite of it all, God’s  purposes won, And Jesus became, the Resurrected One!

And that my Friend, is the reason so clear,        That Easter for us presents no fear,                          Tis only for us to humble our mind, Accept what’s written and then we’ll find,  Satisfaction within and no more  grief,  With  peace in our hearts beyond belief.

Life Lessons

The Seasons of Life

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Have you ever thought of life in this way? We went to a funeral the other day, and it struck me again of the brevity of life when you have come to the end of it. When we are younger, the years stretch ahead endlessly (we think) and there always seems plenty of time to do the things we want to, or the things we know we ought to do. “Tomorrow” we tell ourselves, “We’ll do it (or think about it) tomorrow”.

But you know, tomorrow never comes. A wise king in the Bible called Solomon thought about these things and this is what he had to say about life…..”To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” He wrote more on these lines in  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8… His father, King David wrote these words….”As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes; For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place shall know it no more.” It sparked these thoughts…

Spring….         ages birth – thirty….       Seeds sown This is the time of life that we lay our foundations….of education, relationships and careers. We learn more in these years than at any other time of life. 

Summer ..        ages 30-50…                 Weeds grown These are the busy years…we are so busy raising a family, buying a home and getting established, that we allow the weeds of busyness to stifle any thoughts we might have towards God and the spiritual side of life.

Autumn…         ages 50-70…                 Deeds  reaping time It’s now the time of reaping what we’ve been sowing during the previous years. The habits we’ve formed, either bad or good; our families have grown and gone, and now we have time for the hobbies we’ve always promised ourselves to take up; we still have the energy to travel and see other parts of the world. Our habits take over and we are so busy having a good time that again we put thoughts of the future out of our minds.

Winter…           ages  70-?                     Needs…time’s flown!       Our grandchildren have grown and are now having problems which we can’t help taking on our own shoulders as we watch them flounder along making the same mistakes that we once made. Now we are brought up with a round turn by health problems, and we find that we have new needs. We have to downsize; things we once did with ease, now take all day. Then when we come to the next big-0 birthday, we realise that there is very little time left, and maybe no quality time at that. Our minds are not as clear as they used to be, and it is an effort to think of the future and spiritual things. “Well,” we say, “We’ve lived without God all these years, so we can die without Him too!”

This is the biggest mistake we can ever make. We should take time right NOW to think about the future and get ready to meet our Maker. Remember the trips we used to take and the preparations we made for them? The research we put into where to go and where to stay?  Our final trip is the greatest trip we will ever make….let’s make sure we are ready to go!

                                             

Random Devotional Thoughts

How Old is Our Soul?

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    The older we get, the more we tend to think about what lies ahead. We get to the stage of avoiding going to reunions where everyone looks SO old! Then we realise that they are probably thinking the same about us!    It gets to the stage when invited to a grandchild’s engagement or birthday party, that we look around and see with horror that we are probably the oldest ones there!

   I stopped to think about this one day and remembered an incident when a young man said to his grandmother, “Granny, tell me, how old do you feel?” (She was in her early eighties by this time). “Well,” she said, “It’s like this, I know my outside looks old and wrinkly and my bones ache when I get up, but inside I don’t feel any older than fifteen!” “Really!” said the young man astonished, as he went on his way.

    The reason for this is, that a soul is ageless. It never ages. It has been made to live for ever regardless of the age of the body it inhabits and when it dies. Every soul is precious in the sight of God, and His great desire is that each one will live with Him for ever.

    But along with God’s great love which people like to think about, goes God’s innate holiness and sense of justice. All wrongs must be righted and dealt with, and we would all agree with that. God knew that man could never pay the debt of all these injustices so He took on Himself to pay for these in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, the only sinless Person who has ever lived on earth.    We may choose to not believe this, and this is our right, but then we must bear the consequences of this choice. God has done His part, and now we must do our part which is humbling ourselves to accept this free gift  so that our soul will live for ever in God’s presence. Don’t let anyone put you off making the right decision because the alternative of living in darkness without God or anything good for ever and ever doesn’t bear thinking about!