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.
Life Lessons

How to Do It!

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       Our sermon this week followed on from the previous week. It’s one thing to know what we should do, but the question remains, how do we go about it? In the passage of Scripture (Ephesians 6:14-18)  that this talk was based on, we are given a blow by blow account of the WHOLE armour and weapons at our disposal and how to use them. 

    Firstly, there is the belt of truth, and we see this belt is missing in so many of our leaders today….we simply can’t take any notice of what they say! Yes, they may be sincere and think they mean what they say, but it could be a different story to putting it into practice…they simply didn’t know enough about the situation of the things they were promising! We must always make sure before we make a promise that we have gone into it thoroughly first, and KNOW what we are talking about!

    The truth of any matter is the foundation that our words are built on, and without that our statements and promises are valueless!

   Next we must be wearing the boots of something solid….in this case, the Gospel of Peace. We must KNOW that what we base our statements on is solid! Boots are no good if they don’t fit properly, and our feet slide around in them….they let us down in the end and we have to take them off with having blisters and sore feet.

   Then we must pick up and use the shield of faith. This is the basis of all that we believe in…without faith we don’t have stability, and waver from side to side. We are told that we cannot please our General (God) without having this shield with us (Hebrews 11:6)….we have to know the One we believe in, and we cannot believe in Him without having faith that He exists. The shield of faith also helps us to fight off the fiery darts of unbelief and doubt that our enemy shoots at us….it gives us the confidence to face him and stand firm. We are told by James to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7)

    We are to be wearing the helmet of salvation to protect our head…..our thoughts and our mind….what a person thinks about is what they do and how they act. Not only that but we are to take up the sword of the Spirit with us to fight with. We might ask how we can do  that…. we are told that the Bible, is not only God’s Word to us, but is also the Sword of the Spirit! We need to know it thoroughly to use it effectively.

    We are fully provided for, and now it is up to us to use it all. The overall covering is that of prayer, both for ourselves and also for those we know. Just as there is full communication in a family, so there must be for us in the family of God…communication with Him as our Father and supplication for strength for each other, especially in the troubling times we find ourselves in these days.

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Morning Musings

Stand Fast!

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               Standing  Fast!

    In the sermon we were listening to this week, we were exhorted to Stand fast! It is so much easier to go with the flow, to float downstream than to paddle against the current, to stick to your convictions than to give in to popular opinion.

We have seen this in the last few weeks in our community, our church and in our family. How much do our convictions mean to us?  We have seen more than one who will not give in, lose their jobs. All they have striven for through the years, and almost their freedoms of movement have gone.

    If we had been told that this would happen in this free country of New Zealand three years ago, we would not have thought it possible. Now we find ourselves barred from certain areas, as we are  told to move on by authoritarian voices, and who knows how much worse it will get! But if we can do this in the secular world, does it follow on in our spiritual life which is far more important? We are told by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16 :13 to “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be  strong”. And  again  in  Ephesians  6:11-13  we  are  given  the  reason  why  this  is  so necessary.

    We aren’t in this fight alone, God has provided His armour for us to use, but our part is to take it up and use it. Stand up for what is right and don’t give in!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Thoughts for the New Year.

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     As we enter this new year of 2022, many thoughts come to mind. The main one being that the only certainty for this year is the uncertainty that we finished up with last year! Plans for this year can’t be made with any certainty, as we don’t know when what freedom we have, will be clamped down on again. Our clubs and gatherings that we have worked so hard to start and keep going are now in limbo. Rules are being put in place constantly changing things that we thought we knew we might be able to do. We hear of things happening in other countries, and know with a sinking heart that it will only be a matter of time before we too, will be bound by the same things.   

      But all is not lost! The sun will still rise each morning, giving us a brilliant promise of another day! Plants in the garden will still grow and flower,  amazing us with their brilliance and beauty. God is still on His throne, and His promises still stand….He said, “I am the Lord, I change not!” His Word, the Bible, still stands true and nothing can alter that. His people can still look back on their experiences in life, and see how He has worked for them….nothing can change those memories! So let’s remember these things and look upwards instead of downwards and take heart to keep going.

    If we do not have these memories,  remember it is never too late to start our journey with the Lord on our side…all we have to do is to ask Him. He has said, “Those who seek Me will find Me!”, and He will never turn down a sincere and repentant person. Once we have done this, then all the rest of this life’s uncertainties that we face this year, will fade into insignificance, and we will be able to go forward into 2022 with confidence!!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Beauty out of Dry Ground.

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    I have been growing amaryllis lilies in pots this year. A friend who was moving away from the district gave me several of these beautiful plants of hers which I had always admired, and I didn’t want to miss a minute of their beauty. So when the flowers began to come, they were brought in to the living room so we could watch them open and develop.

   It always amazes me how such beauty can come out the same soil….how do these plants know when the right time to grow is? How do they know when to send up their flower shoots? Yet each year, we could almost set our clock by them! We have a lot of a certain type of cherry tree that grows wild around our town…how do they know when July comes and that it is time to  begin to flower?

     There is the Belladonna lily that follows a  regular pattern too…every year without fail it sends up long stalks from the ground with its flowers of either pink or white. There are no leaves around this flower stalk and it stands up stark and naked on its own. After two or three weeks, the flower dies down, and the plant is dormant again until about July when the first leaves start to appear. It is a very luxurious looking plant, quite handsome in fact, and fills the empty gaps in the garden. Then about October the leaves start  to go brown and die down, and the whole plant goes to sleep. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you would think the plant had died! But when the next February comes, the whole cycle starts again!

    The creativity of God to put these patterns into the plants He has designed, is amazing!  When we stop to think about it, everything He has made is amazing. Mankind is no less amazingly made, and it is a lesson to us to look for the hidden talents that each one of us has, and to use them for God’s glory. No matter what our surroundings are or the environment we are in, there is always something we can thank Him for. As the Bible says, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

If you think that you don’t have anything you can do, we can ALL give praise and thanks to Him for what we see in His creation around us!!  (Philippians 4:20)

Life Lessons

Fragmented!

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    Our government has decided in its wisdom that gatherings in general (and churches in particular) are not to meet in numbers greater than twenty-five for unvaccinated people, and one hundred for those who are vaccinated. This means that for a lot of organisations, the people have had to look at how to divide their gatherings and yet keep the overall unity of the whole group together. This is no mean feat, as people tend to gravitate towards those they know best, and hesitate to join those who they don’t know so well.

   But we need to look at the wider picture, and think of some positives of such a move. Firstly, it gives us a chance to get to know other people better…there is nothing like a small group to activate conversation by asking questions and really listening to the answers. Then others who may irritate us somewhat, give us a chance to exercise Christian grace and patience, and to look beneath the surface of remarks we may not agree with. There is one thing to remember….always look at the half cup of drink in front of you as being half full and not half empty!!

    Then again, there is the prospect of road blocks facing those who travel over our holiday period, and the frustration this will generate….another time of exercising grace and patience!

So whatever our particular test will be, let us remember the wider picture and learn some benefit from it, rather than just grinning and bearing it ungraciously!!!

Random Devotional Thoughts

Famous Last Words!

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     We recently watched a documentary made by a very well known person towards the end of his life. He had everything this life would promise us….fame, money, and a massive business behind him. But, he had received the diagnosis of terminal cancer. Now he had to face the prospect of leaving all this behind. He had nothing to look forwards to as he did not know God.

     But he was still able to leave some good advice which we would all do well to take notice of. He said that even though he had reached the pinnacle of his business world, and could employ anyone he wished to do his work, yet no-one else could bear his illness for him. He said that once good health is lost, it can never be regained.

    None of his possessions gave true happiness….his big mansion was still only a place to keep him dry and warm the same as a pensioner’s cottage did….it did not give happiness, and there was still the same amount of loneliness when on your own.

     His $300,000 car still had to travel the same road as a $30,000 one, and still take as long to get there, up and down the same hills  to the same destination. His expensive watch still told only the same time as a cheaper one, and neither could hold time back. It didn’t make any difference if he drank a $100 bottle of wine or a ten dollar bottle, the hangover was still the same! If you fly first class in a plane or economy class, and the plane goes down,  it is the same end result!

    Some advice he gave to parents was to train  children to know true happiness rather than to strive to be rich. People matter more than things. There is a big difference between being a human being, and being human! We are loved when we are born, and we are loved when we die, but what about the years in between?

    Money does not buy happiness….true happiness comes from within, from the joy that the Lord gives when you seek to know and follow Him. The richest man who has ever lived, who started off well, but seemed to end up poorly was King Solomon who said, “Vanity of vanities, ALL is vanity”, and he would no doubt echo the words of the man in the above story.

   The thing we would do well to remember is that the Apostle Paul who knew what it was to suffer, could say “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

Life Lessons

What’s over the Hill?

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        We have been recently watching some documentaries of the early explorers of Australia, and how they wanted to explore this new continent that they had settled in. Sadly, some of them lost their lives in the process, and all because they went into the trip unprepared for the conditions that they found. They thought that by travelling with camels which were used to dry conditions that they would be safe enough. They made their way over the thousands of kilometers of trackless desert, only to lose their lives on the way back through the heat and lack of food and water.                               

Yet, if they had only known it, there was enough food in the desert if they had only known where to look for it. The river that they explored had an abundance of creatures in it that they could have eaten, but they weren’t aware of it.                                                                                                           

       It reminds me of how we flounder along in life at times hungering for the truth, and yet not able to find it because we are looking in the wrong places for it. Or maybe we aren’t prepared to search in the right direction because of some preconceived ideas that we have. The explorers didn’t fancy the idea of looking in the river for something to eat because they weren’t familiar with the things that lived in it. So even though they were desperate for food, they perished because of their lack of knowledge.

    So let’s make sure that we aren’t looking for spiritual satisfaction in the wrong places through ignorance or preconceived ideas. Jesus Christ said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one can come to the Father (God) except by Him. He is more than a mere name or word to be carelessly used, but is the source of all truth and life. Not only that, but He is able and willing to reveal Himself to all who sincerely look for Him.

Morning Musings

Reflected Light…

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 The other morning while taking my early walk just as the sun was peeping over the hill, I could see a distant house that we never normally noticed. But just at that time of the day, the rising sun caught the windows facing it, and the reflected light was almost blinding. A bit further on, a closer house also caught the sun’s rays on its front windows. The thing that impressed me was the fact that there was no light in these windows of themselves at all, they were merely reflecting the sun at that time.

   It brought to mind the story of Moses in the Bible how that after he had been in the mountain top with God receiving the ten commandments for the people, his face was lit up with the light of heaven  on it. It was too bright for the people to look at it and he had to wear a veil over it until the brightness had faded somewhat. Then there is the account of how a man called Stephen was arrested for preaching about Jesus. As he spoke in his defence, members of the council saw that his face was shining like that of an angel.

   You might think that this was just in Bible times, but we heard of an elderly Christian gentleman who we knew, who was in hospital recovering from some heart trouble. One day, one of his friends went to visit him and asked the nurse where they could find him. She said, “Oh in the room just along there….look for the man with the face like an angel”.

  I wonder if people could say that about us? Or do we have a hard expression on our face when in repose? I often find myself so busy thinking about my own affairs that I hardly see other people and just march past them! It takes effort to think of others and give a smile to lighten their day. If we practiced that more often then perhaps people would see Jesus in us too. This is how we should be….little reflectors of His great light.