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.
Random Devotional Thoughts

Shadows Cannot Hurt You.

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P1020749   It was one of those days when the clouds race across the sky, giving patches of shade and sunshine. As a big shadow covered the sun and the warmth faded, it made me realise that shadows cannot hurt us. They may take the warmth and joy out of the day while they linger, but they will always pass and the sun will shine again. We go through bad times, and then find that time does heal the losses we have experienced, and the hurts we have suffered.

There is a well known verse in the Bible that sums it all up….Yes, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You (God) are with me, and Your rod and staff comfort me. (Psalm 23:4) We can know God’s comfort if we look to Him for it, but unless we roll all our cares on Him and leave them there, we cannot know His peace that passes all our understanding.

 

Random Devotional Thoughts

Does Truth Matter Any More?

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Pilate asked Jesus Christ “What is truth?” There was the One who is the Truth standing before him and he didn’t recognize truth when he saw Him!

The modern ideas of what Truth is, is that it is relative…what feels right for you, is truth! They say absolute truth doesn’t really matter; partial truth is good enough! People rewrite history to suit present day concepts; e.g. no holocaust, and religious truth is what suits you, what you “think” !

People don’t like the  truth because they are innately rebellious and the truth shows them up….it is light in a dark world.

These are all popular ideas, so much so that even Christians begin to subscribe to them. We are being brainwashed every day by what we watch on TV, until we too have the same ideas without realising it.

All these ideas are contrary to what the Bible teaches, and we must continually put the measuring rule of God’s Word against them. It is God’s standard  for truth; God’s Word is true from the beginning and the Lord Jesus is the prime example of One who stood for the truth in every way!  He was completely honest in every word, thought and action, and completely without sin. He is the only way to God, and the world says this is too narrow.  They say we must be more liberal and tolerant. Sin is NOT tolerant once it has a person in its grip…it is merciless and cruel.

Jesus said that the way to life is on the narrow road which only a few find, because the majority are not willing to follow God’s rules. Common sense tells us that certain “narrow” rules must be adhered to…road rules must be followed to prevent carnage, football rules must be adhered to or there won’t be a game, phone numbers must be correct or the right person won’t be reached, natural laws must be obeyed (fire will burn you, if you fall from a height you will get hurt). Truth IS narrow!

Let’s make sure that we as Christians do not allow the world to “squeeze” us into its mould and way of thinking.

Random Devotional Thoughts

A Bend in the Road.

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The big dog was curled up on the front deck of the house. He looked an absolute picture of misery, with no life or interest in anything. He knew that his family had gone away and left him, and he was going to guard things until they got back. He knew the day before they had left that something was in the wind by the way the missus was packing things up….there was just a general feeling of unrest around the place. And then those other people were back. He wasn’t too sure of them, even though they had been coming and going to their caravan that was parked up the back by the workshop over the last few weeks.

All day he lay there with his head on his paws, and one ear cocked just in case his family came back. He barked all night almost without stopping, at least the people in the caravan thought so. They said to each other, “He’s going to be a little horse (hoarse) in the morning”, and then laughed at their little joke.

Needless to say he was very tired the next day, and slept until mid afternoon. Then he got up and trotted down the track to the caravan with his ears up. He looked like a different dog. He was alert and back to his old happy self. He even smelt the new missus all over when she talked to him.

It was almost as though he had said to himself, “Well, it’s no use moping here by myself, I might as well make the best of it!”

Shep        The dog on guard by the caravan.

From then on, he guarded the caravan and kept the people there company.  As we watched him lying there with one eye cocked on the goings on (not that there were many!) we couldn’t help thinking how like life this is.

We come to a bend in the road and all seems dark and miserable. We think that things are never going to be the same again, and maybe they won’t be. But there is no use moping about it. The dog couldn’t bring his people back by moping, and neither can we. We may as well get up and go on straight away instead of remaining miserable and making others miserable in the process.

There is a passage in the Bible that says …..          God’s way is perfect! The promise of the LORD has proven to be true. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.         Who is God but the LORD? Who is a rock except our God? God arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like those of a deer and gives me sure footing on high places. He trains my hands for battle so that my arms can bend an [archer’s] bow of bronze. (Psalm 18:31-34)

    We all have enemies at times….enemies of doubts, fears and disappointments. When they seem about to engulf us, we can call on God for His help. He promises this to everyone who will take His salvation as the next verses go on to say….. You have given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand supports me. Your gentleness makes me great. You make a wide path for me to walk on so that my feet do not slip. I chased my enemies and caught up with them. I did not return until I had ended their lives. I wounded them so badly that they were unable to get up. They fell under my feet. You armed me with strength for battle. You made my opponents bow at my feet. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me.  (Psalm 18:35-39)

 

Random Devotional Thoughts

What is True Freedom?

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336      A bird is free in the air, and out of its environment in the water; a fish is free in the water and out of its depth on the beach. A human being is out of his natural environment both in the water and in the air (without some outside aids).

Have you ever seen videos of a penguin walking up the beach? He waddles along looking most awkward. Then when he flops down over the rocks heading towards the tide again, he looks most ungainly until he drops into the surf. He becomes a different creature, and we can hardly believe how swiftly and gracefully he swims under water…..this is his natural habitat, and the camera finds it hard to keep up with him.

So it is with a Christian, who is only totally free while walking in obedience to the Lord…..he is out of his depth while walking without Him, living only for himself and  floundering along with no peace of mind. Let’s make sure we aren’t like this.

Miracles

The Runaway Car.

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VW Van - Copy      We were still on our trip around England and had got as far as Scotland. We had wanted to go to the Isle of Skye the previous trip we went to UK, but circumstances had prevented us from getting there. So we safely made the trip to the island this time, taking the vehicle ferry across the narrow passage of water from the seaside village of Mallaig.

We found the Isle of Sky a fascinating place and felt that we had gone back a hundred years until we met other vehicles on the narrow one way roads. Small stone crofts dotted the landscape, with the rugged hills making the backdrop. There were no fences to keep the animals off the road, and one had to be careful of not collecting a sheep or two as one went around a corner. The main town of Portree was a fascinating collection of stone houses all jumbled around the small harbour that was ringed with hills. There was no flat land….it was all sloping at different degrees.

We found the public campground a little further along the road and pulled in there, trying to find the most level bit of ground we could find. There was usual collection of tents, vans and caravans that one finds in such places and it soon began to fill up even more for the night.

The camp ground was on the sloping side of a hill, and right at the top against the fence, we noticed a tent with a car parked just below it. We didn’t see the occupants as they zipped themselves up fairly early in the evening. Other people went off down to the village below, while yet  others were preparing their evening meals.

Being summer time as it was, and so far north, it was still quite daylight at ten pm in the evening , and we were preparing for the night.  I looked up from the table where I was writing up the day’s events, and could hardly believe what I was seeing.

“Look out”, I cried, “That car at the top of the hill is running down among the tents and there is no-one in it!”

Keith looked up in disbelief, and watched the car run over one of the small domed tents, then veer towards our camper van. There was nothing we could do. The car turned slightly more, and ran between us and neighbouring caravan, just clipping its back side as it went past. It was slowing down by this time, and ended up its mad career by sitting on top of another tent beside the bottom fence.

People were scurrying around watching in horror, and checking that no-one was badly hurt. The girl in the first tent that was run over had been hurt, but she was still alive. It was only a matter of minutes and we heard the wail of the ambulance and police sirens coming. There was no-one in the second tent that still had the car sitting on top of it…..they were out on an evening walk.

As for the occupants of the zipped up tent at the top of the hill, they didn’t know anything until the police woke them up to ask why their car had run away! They were a couple of French lads and must have felt totally bewildered by the turn of the evening’s events!

How thankful we were that our van had been untouched by the runaway car that zipped so close by, and as far as we were concerned it was truly a miracle from the Lord to keep us on track for our trip. What could have happened, gave us the shivers just to think about it all!

Miracles

Truth is Stranger than Fiction!

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We had finished our tour of England and were about to leave for home via America. We had made our bookings to stay in New   York for three days before carrying on by the ordinary Greyhound bus line (this was in 1988) across the States.  We had a month’s open ticket from the time it was first used, and we could get on and off as many times as we liked during that month.

We enjoyed our few days in New York, staying in a budget hostel near the centre of the city, and our time there warrants a story of its own!

We soon found that things travelling by bus were very different to what we had expected. The first thing we noticed was that the buses (which were not tour buses) didn’t have wide panorama windows with a good view, but were fairly high with very little view to be seen from them. The second thing we found out was that no bookings needed to be made ahead, one just arrived at the bus depot and stood in line. It was a case of first come, first served! The third thing was that the main Greyhound bus depots were always in the centre of the down-town areas, and there was very little information to be had….no information help desk or kiosk to help ignorant tourists travelling alone in this big country for the first time. Not only that, but the bus depots were the haven for many beggars who looked as though they lived there, with their few belongings clustered around them. Then there were the taxi drivers all jostling you to take your bags to goodness knows where, so if you weren’t quick keeping them with you, you had to helplessly follow them and hope for the best.

Many of our fellow-travellers were young back-packers, while others were a collection of all different types of people. We felt quite vulnerable with all our worldly possessions for the trip in a couple of suitcases, and our money, passports and other documents about our persons. When one is travelling like that, it makes one realise that all the paraphernalia that one accumulates in life is really quite unnecessary for the moment! Another thing that we felt quite strongly was that even though we weren’t sure what we were going to find at the end of the day, yet we could confidently commit our day’s travel to the Lord each morning. Then just trust that He would direct us to find a bed somewhere to lay our heads on that night!

We managed to get the front seat for the first day of our journey, and this gave a good view of the road ahead. This inspired us to be bold enough to pray that night that we might be able  to have the front seat for the whole trip as we had come to America to see the country. Were we being cheeky to ask such a thing?  We didn’t know, but we remembered the verse that says, “You don’t have, because you don’t ask” and so we asked and then did our part by always being early in line at the bus depot each morning.

Where is the miracle in all this?  What we couldn’t do, God did for us. Each day, we managed to have the front seat. Sometimes we would travel during the night on the bus, and views didn’t count then. The bus would pull in to various depots on the way, and people would get on and off. Sometimes as people were travelling long distances, we found our seat had been warmed by someone who had just left the bus. Other times if people had just got off for a comfort stop, they would board the bus back to their previous seat, completely bypassing the empty front seat which was waiting for us. Twice when boarding the bus late in the day, we had to start off by sitting further back. People were getting off at various stops along the way during the night and each time if  we could edge our way further forward, we would. By the time daylight had come, we were back into the front seat again!

Another time, we found a real crowd waiting for the bus when we arrived at the depot, and we were fairly well down the line.

I gave my mate a poke in the back and said, “I don’t think we’ll get the front seat this time!” The bus pulled in with a hiss of its brakes, and people started to climb aboard. I could see the front seat was filled fairly early on this time. The bus was full by the time the last person in front of us got on board. A barrier was put across the line, and another bus pulled in as the first one left. We were the first ones to board this bus, and were able to sink thankfully into the front seat again! Truly, God was marvellously good to us!

We had a wonderful month, seeing much of the countryside and meeting some wonderful people who we have since kept in touch with for nearly thirty years!

Miracles

The Backpacker’s Miracle.

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The young man got off the plane in Auckland with his back-pack, not knowing which way to turn. He only had five days in New Zealand and all he knew was that he would like to see the Bay of Islands and have a day or so on a farm.

So he turned to the north, and caught a bus to Kerikeri. Whether he made his travels a matter of prayer or not, I don’t know, and some would call this a mere coincidence, but we prefer to call it a miracle, or perhaps even more so, a matter of the Lord honouring those who honour Him.  After all,  how many young back-packers carry a large Bible around with them and take the time out of a tight schedule to go to church in a strange country?

It was the summer holidays at this time and as we usually did, we were spending the time on our yacht (sail boat)  in the Bay of Islands. We always made a point of attending a small church fellowship in Kerikeri while on holiday and this particular Sunday morning we went there as usual. We saw this tall young man sitting at the back of the church carrying a large Bible with him…by the look of his clothes we guessed he was an American, and when we heard him speak all doubt was removed!

Our friends invited him as well as ourselves home for lunch, and we had a lively discussion over the meal. When he told us about the two things he wanted to see while in New Zealand, we looked at each other and then told him that we could probably point him in the direction of both of them at no cost if he liked.

He did like, and so he came back with us to the yacht and stayed a couple of days with us. We were able to take him to all the popular tourist spots, and my, how we did talk! We talked well into the night about Christian things.

Dave Nissan     Dave at the wheel of the yacht.

There were many things he wanted to know that we were able to tell him and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

When he left us, we got in touch with our brother on his dairy farm and sent him there for another day or so. So this was a case of the Lord granting him his desire in a way that could not have been engineered in any other manner! He came as a stranger and left as a  brother. As far as he was concerned his whole visit to New Zealand was one big miracle!

We kept in touch for many years and the spin-off was that we were able to pay a visit to the town in Oregon where he had a tourist business, and he gave us a wonderful and memorable trip on one of the lakes in his area.

 

Miracles

Angel Unawares.

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Charlatan“Quick”, I cried to Howard, “Bring me a pillow!”

I put it under my moaning husband’s head. He was bleeding profusely from a cut in his head and in a lot of pain, although still coherent.

We had been  with Howard and Jill who were on holiday from London, taking them  around the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand in our sailing yacht. On the trip back to the mooring  Keith let Howard steer  the yacht while sailing.

Heading up the channel, the wind was coming directly behind us. The sails were set to the  “goose-winging” position with both sails on different sides of the yacht. It was tricky keeping the wind full in the sails while doing this and Howard accidentally let the wind out of one of the sails. It then swung sharply across  the cockpit track taking the halyard with it. This caught Keith on the side of the head throwing him sharply onto the  gunwales .

Jill and I were inside packing things ready to go ashore, and  didn’t see what happened. Hearing Howard call out, I rushed outside thinking that the boom had caught Keith on the head, which is always a danger. But Keith was able to tell me what had happened and then said to  pull the sails down, and motor in to the mooring. I did this while Howard kept steering towards the mooring. My mind was racing ahead. What should we do first?

The radio wasn’t working, so there was no point in wasting time there. Completely forgetting that it was a Friday and a working day, I sent Howard ashore to the end house in the bay with a message to ring Colin who lived up the hill. The time was 4.30 p.m. He would have been home on a Saturday (which I thought it was), but the man in the house knew quite well that it was Friday and that Colin would be at work.  So he sent Howard back to tell me this.

Just as Howard turned to go down the path a car pulled up at the gate, and there was Colin!  What a miracle this was! He was the only one in the area who we knew could help us, and he hurriedly came out to the yacht with Howard to see what the problem was. By this time, Keith wasn’t with it and the pillow was saturated with blood. Colin grasped the situation immediately and called the coastguard from his own yacht , asking that an ambulance be sent  to the bay straight away.

The ambulance finally arrived, with two women manning it. My heart sank. How ever would we get Keith ashore and into it like he was? The tide was now high, and Colin took our yacht in closer to the ramp, with only a short distance to row ashore. Somehow we manhandled Keith’s limp body into the dinghy and then ashore into the ambulance .  I went with Keith while Colin put the yacht away.

I wasn’t sure whether Keith would come through or not. A doctor to met us on the road, and put some plasma into him to keep him going. This helped somewhat, and he started talking a lot of nonsense! At the hospital, nurses met us at the door and gave Keith a blood transfusion, which revived him immediately. He couldn’t see why he shouldn’t be able to go home with the rest of us!!  Howard had followed the ambulance to the hospital in our car, and we drove home marvelling at the way things had worked out.

Later we asked Colin why he had been at the bay when we needed him. He said it had been a slack day at the office and he thought he would go home early and take some money he owed to the man at the end house. He would have left the office at the very time that Keith had been hit! It amazed us how God used  circumstances so that even a non-Christian man  worked His purposes for us. Colin was truly an angel in disguise whether he knew it or not!!

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