Category Archives: Morning Musings

Morning Musings

The Friendship Book.

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  Some people are great fun to be with. They can be the life and soul of the party, and always seem to be on top of things. When we first meet them, they are so outgoing that we feel as though we’ve always known them. But on the other hand, these same people can suffer great lows.

King David in the Bible seemed to be this sort of person. He had moments of great joy and times when he could praise the Lord with great enthusiasm… Shout out praises to the LORD, all the earth!  he wrote, Worship the LORD with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing! Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give him thanks! Praise his name! For the LORD is good. His loyal love endures, and he is faithful through all generations.

Then on the other hand, he got very depressed when things went wrong, and wrote this….. In my distress I cried out to the LORD and he answered me. I said, “O LORD, rescue me from those who lie with their lips and those who deceive with their tongue. How will he severely punish you, you deceptive talker? How miserable I am!

Other people we meet may be much more reserved and harder to get to know. But persevere with your efforts to be friendly….these ones make good friends in the end. Remember that those who want friends, must show themselves to be friendly!

Friendship is like a BOOK: it takes years to write, but a careless word or action can burn it in a flash. So take care how you treat your friendships, and never take them for granted.

Morning Musings

Ants!

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As I was sweeping out the front porch this morning, I noticed a long narrow line of ants scuttling back and forth. Even though I don’t like ants around the house, I couldn’t help but marvel at how these little creatures kept even rank, each one seeming to know exactly where it was going and what it was about. They are such an amazing little creature, that they are held up as an example to lazy human beings in the Bible……”Go to the ant you sluggard! Learn her ways and be wise!” we are told in Proverbs 6:6-9. These verses tell us to be like the ant and not to be lazy but to get up and get going off to our own work.
Whenever there is a bit of food on the ground, those ants seem to find it! They all hurry to the spot, and do their best to get as much of it as they can. I wonder if we are like this with God’s Word? We are told that it is more necessary than our daily food, and yet how many of us bother to even look into its pages! How much time do we take to read it during the week? Or do we just open it on Sundays while waiting for people to arrive at church?
Let’s take these things to heart and to make time for the things that matter most!

Morning Musings

When Ignorance is NOT Bliss!

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Ignorance is bliss so they say. But this is no excuse as far as the law is concerned! One day a new “Stop” sign was erected on a road I didn’t use much, and I slid over it as usual after checking that no cars were coming. Alas for me, a traffic officer confronted me around the corner where he had been waiting to catch the unwary offenders. My ignorance was no excuse for getting out of the ensuing fine, and it was large enough to hurt my pocket. I ruefully thought of the shoes or whatever else that I could have bought with that amount!

It made me realise that just as the law accepts no excuses for being broken, that God’s law is just as inflexible. He says, “The soul that sins, shall die!”

On the other hand is the verse that says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only beloved Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

Morning Musings

Whining or Shining?

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I heard a pastor speaking on TV the other day and he asked a question that made me stop and think.

“Do you whine or do you shine?” was the question. You may smile at this, but it  brought me up with a round turn. How many times do I complain about the weather being too hot, being too wet, or too cold? We have no control over the weather, but we DO have control over our attitude to it!

 How do we react when we don’t feel well? Do we take some pain killers and get on with things cheerfully, or do we put up with the aches and pains and make sure everyone around us knows how we are feeling? 

What about when we are standing in a queue waiting to be served at the supermarket check-out  and there is some trouble at the counter and the line  slows down…do we wait patiently or do our fingers start to tap, and our blood pressure rise? (I might add that nearly every line I get in seems to be the slowest one there!)  so this is a good challenge to me! So now I will stop and think….”will I shine or will I whine?” and hopefully choose the right one!

The right choice will make me feel better, those around me feel better, and most of all will please the Lord!

Morning Musings

All Set to Win!

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The Commonwealth Games of 2018 are nearly over. All the efforts of training, the expectation of the competition, the joys of winning and disappointments of missing out, are all over for this time. We watched some of the competitions, and felt the disappointment of seeing one poor competitor in the marathon race get so near the finishing line in the winning place, only to collapse just short of getting there. He had made such a good start, and kept his pace and place until nearly the end, only to miss out.

I couldn’t help thinking of those verses that Paul wrote to Timothy reminding him that it is only those who get crowned  who get to the end having gone all the way according to the rules. It didn’t matter that this poor competitor had collapsed due to dehydration and subsequent weakness, he had failed to keep to the rules, so he missed out. We too, have rules to keep to in our lives….not only in our physical lives, but also in our spiritual lives.

You didn’t know there was a spiritual life that we each one have? What does it matter you might ask? It makes all the difference between eternal life  in peace and joy and eternal life in misery and torment. The young man competing in the games sincerely thought he had done sufficient training, but he had forgotten one fact….he would be running in a heat and climate very different to what he was used to, and that he would need to keep his supply of drinking water up. He couldn’t make it.

So many people say they don’t believe in all that stuff, but what a person believes doesn’t alter the facts that God lays down. I was in an airport waiting for my flight one time and heard of an American lady who thought she was going Oakland in California, but due to the difference in accents, she was in fact getting on a plane to Auckland, New Zealand. She sincerely thought she was on the right plane, but she was sincerely wrong. Sincerity isn’t always what gets us to the right destination, it must be sincerity coupled with facts.

So even if you sincerely believe that there is nothing after death, that your life will just be snuffed out into oblivion, you had better make sure that your sincerity is coupled with facts. Where are the facts about a spiritual life found? In the Book written by the author of spiritual life, our handbook for life, the Bible. This is the only place we can find out the facts to base our choices and decisions on. So find the facts and then make a sincere and informed choice!

Morning Musings

The Story of Queen Esther (Part Five)

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    Enter Haman 

Esther 3: 1-15

    We now  see  the villain of the story come into view. Haman was a very ambitious and proud man who couldn’t stand the sight of  Mordecai outside the king’s palace….

When all the other men would bow and scrape to him, Mordecai remained upright. This made Haman boil inside and when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, that made him even angrier. Who did he think he was? So he plotted to destroy all the Jews.

The king thought so much of Haman that he agreed to do whatever he suggested. Haman made his plans and presented them to the king. The date for the slaughter of all Jews was set and  notification sent out.

Haman certainly is a type of Satan who goes around among believers doing all sorts of mischief and looking for those he can devour and trip up. Peter says that Satan  is like a roaring lion and we are told to resist him firmly (1 Peter 5:8-9). The only way we can do this is to be firmly based in the teachings of Scripture. This is called the sword of God and it’s no use holding it without using it! (Ephesians 6:11-17)

So we see Haman rubbing his hands with glee at the thought of getting rid of the man he hated so much as he was  going to the king with his request!

Haman came in  filled  up with pride, But Mordecai he couldn’t abide;

To bow and scrape he’d just  refuse, So Haman planned to kill  the Jews.

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Daily Devotionals, Morning Musings

The Story of Queen Esther, Part Three.

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     Enter Esther

Esther 2:1-10

     It is wonderful the way that God works in lives and the affairs of people. Here we see the stage being set for a godly woman to change the course of history….

God saw to it that Vashti was deposed and that Esther was among those chosen to be groomed for the position of queen. Not only that, but the timing was right in the political arena as well with the new prime minister not having risen to his zenith of power.

We see that Mordecai the Jew had some sort of job in or around the palace. Mordecai in this story is a type of God’s Holy Spirit who cares for and protects God’s people. Mordecai had the guardianship of his beautiful young cousin and she came to the notice of the officials who were looking around for girls to be groomed in court protocol  to be the next queen.

Esther had such a sweet disposition and pretty face, that everyone liked her. Not only was she a pretty girl, but she was obedient to her cousin when he told her not to say that she was a Jewess.

As believers, we must be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as we read the Scriptures, so we can be a blessing to others.

Esther was right in time and place,                                                                               With her sweet  smile  and pretty face;                                                                     She charmed the prince with winsome ways,                                                 Learning graces for future days.

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Morning Musings

Doing God’s Work.

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 Man TalkingWe heard recently of an itinerant preacher who had been moving around among churches teaching that simply to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Bible teaches, is not enough for a person to become a Christian. The part of the verse that was quoted as teaching this, says…. “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13) The next verse goes on to say that “it is GOD who works in you to do His good pleasure”, so we can see from this that the works referred to are nothing to do with what we can do, but what God chooses to do through us!

The man telling us this story had worked with building fibreglass boats for many years, and he pointed out that when working with fibreglass, it will stay ready to use in its container while it is untouched, for many months. To make it work, it must  have a catalyst added to it, and then it begins to do its job. In the same way, a person who repents of his sin, receives the Holy Spirit and then can begin to work for the Lord.

But if we slip up and go back into our old ways, we grieve the Holy Spirit , and He then cannot do His work through us….it is as though a neutralizer has been added to the mix and the fibreglass mixture is good for nothing.

In our lives it is the times when we miss our daily Bible reading and get too busy to go to church, that we get cold in heart and we become good for nothing as far as our work for the Lord goes. God cannot use someone who is too busy to keep in touch with Him. It is HIS work that counts, not ours! Let’s take this as our challenge for this month and sort ourselves out!