Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

Do You Ever Feel Like this?

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    We were travelling once in a strange area, and decided to take a train ride that was advertised as being a scenic one. So we went on board, and there was one other passenger, a Japanese tourist with a large camera strung around his neck. It was a while before the train started off…it was an old steam train, and of course had to get the steam up before it could move off. No-one else turned up to go for the ride, so at last it began to huff and puff and then to finally move off.    We waited to see what was around the first corner, but it was only more of the same sort of scenery. Another two or three minutes of this chugging along, and then it stopped. In the middle of nowhere, just like that. Then we heard a clanking and fresh chugging, but the train was going back the same way that we had come! Was this all that we were going to get for our money?

   The other passenger hadn’t even got his camera out of its case, let alone taken any pictures! With a great swooshing sound, the steam was let out of the engine as it came to a stop at the platform. The driver came along, and said that the trip was over. We could hardly believe our ears! Just that little bit? The Japanese passenger got out, and we followed him along to the road. “I tink we been had,” he was saying, more or less to himself. And then again, “I tink we been had!!”   Well, we felt like that too, in fact we KNEW that we had been “had”!

     There are many times in life when we feel we have been shortchanged, and let down. But you know there is one time when we are never let down or been “had”, and that is when we take God at His Word. He will ALWAYS keep His Word….what He says He will do, He WILL do! And if we are His followers, that is how we should be too…we must always stick to what we say, so that others will know that they can trust what we say. In this world where there is so much fake news, we hardly know what to take notice of and what to discard as nonsense.

    That is another lesson for us to learn…always make sure that what bit of information you are going to pass on is based on FACT, and not just hearsay or  idle gossip. If we do this, then others will know that they can always trust what we say.

Life Lessons

Don’t Leave it Too Late!

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    We’ve been concerned about a new friend who has been coming along to church recently, with his wife who is a devout Christian. He doesn’t appear to be anti the messages he is hearing from the pulpit, but neither is he altogether accepting of them. Perhaps you know some folk who are like that.

      He says he just cannot see how God is, Who He is!  He says he will do something about it one day, but we wonder if he really wants to! After all, God has said in His Word, “Those who seek Me SHALL find Me”.

    It reminds me of another man we knew many years ago. He had been going to the
Sunday evening services where the gospel was preached clearly every Sunday night. But after a period of time, he started to make excuses, and eventually stopped going altogether. But the Lord had not quite finished with him. One night he had a vivid dream that troubled him greatly. He went to his uncle who knew him well, and said, “You know Unc, I had a dream the other night. I dreamt that I was in an open place, and that God was in Heaven above me. Then I saw a great big black curtain come down between me and Him, and I know now that I couldn’t come to Him even if I wanted to”. What a tragic state of affairs! He had been convicted so many times, and kept putting off doing anything  about God’s invitation, until now he had passed the point of no return. Shortly after that, he passed away with his daughter by his side. Her comment was, “I never want to see another person die….the expression on Dad’s face as he went, was terrible!”

     We have the case in the Bible of the story of Moses telling the king of Egypt  to let the people of Israel leave the land. At first we read that the king “hardened his heart” and refused to let the people go, but after a few times of this request being made, then we read that the Lord “hardened his heart”. So it was in the case of this man we knew….he had put off the strivings of God with him for so long, that then it had no effect on him. He knew it too, and that dream just confirmed it to him.

     So we continue to pray for our new friend, that he will not do the same thing until it is too late, and he has no desire to come to church any more. So it is with those who may read this post…..if there is something you need to put right or some confession of sin that needs to be done, do NOT put it off. The desire to do so may leave you, and you will be the worse off for it in the long run!

Life Lessons

What do you See?

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     As we approach the new year later this week, let us think on this little story….

A  professor once set  his students an exam. He handed the papers all out upside down, and then told them to turn the page over. They found it was just a blank piece of paper with a large black dot in the middle of it. He told them to have a good look at it, and then write down what they were seeing.

   Without exception, they all wrote about the black spot, where it was on the page and the effect it had on the paper. The professor then told them that not one had commented on the whiteness of the paper or the size of it in comparison to the black spot, and then pointed out the moral of the story….how much we concentrate on the wrong things around us instead of on the good things we see.

   That reminded me that I’m like that too, and it ought not to be !

  So whenever things annoy or grate on you in this New Year, just remember to overlook the black spot in  the middle of the page and focus on the white size of the paper!! As we look around at others, there are always those who are worse off than we are….perhaps in health,  in family problems, or in losing a dear friend. Let us each one be thankful for the blessings we have and not see the “black spot” on our page!!

Life Lessons

How do we View the Baby in the Manger?

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Our speaker at church this week continued on with the theme of Christmas.  He pointed out how Christmas is all about Christ. Unfortunately, this seems to make people feel uncomfortable, and they have covered up the real meaning with commercialism, the getting and giving of presents and family time. While these things are all good, they tend to blur what the season is all about.

People can cope with Jesus, the baby in the manger, and with Jesus the Healer and Teacher. When it comes to Jesus on the cross, they agree that yes, it was a historical fact, but as for the Resurrection and the ascension to Heaven, they tend to pass that off as being a bit fanciful. As for the mere idea that Jesus Christ is still alive and about to return to earth to mete out judgement on all the evil that has been done over the ages, this idea is totally out of their realm and is refused out of hand.

   Stop and think about it for a minute…. if this is not correct, there is nothing to lose, but if it IS correct and no preparations are being done for it, then there is everything to lose.

Life Lessons

The End, or the Beginning?

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    Last week we went to a memorial service for a good friend who had died a couple of weeks earlier. This friend knew his end was near and was fully prepared to go to meet his Lord and Master. So it was good to pay our respects to his memory, and to give his wife a hug.

    This week we went to a funeral service of another good friend. There were many eulogies and memories given. He too, was ready to go on this, his last journey. The service left the hearers in no doubt of this fact. His family all recognised what he had lived for, and paid respects to this. It was a time of memories, with laughs and tears at the same time.

    So many people these days like to forgo the rite of a funeral, often just having a cremation rather than a funeral. This must be very difficult for those closest to the deceased, as there is not the same sense of closure as seeing the coffin go into the ground. This too, is the place where those closest can come in days to come, to remember, and at first to still grieve.

    For those who know the Lord God, it is comforting to take the promises of Scripture at their word. We can know that this is not the end of life, but in fact, the beginning of a new stage of life….life eternal with the God of Heaven. We have no comprehension of what  exactly is involved in this, as we only know this life, but both these friends of ours DO know what it is all about now. We can have this confidence here and now too, so let’s hope each one of us looks for this.

Life Lessons

Reflections

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        It was a gloriously mild winter day.  We had gone back to our home village while in the area and parked at the end of the road beside the local wharf. There were a couple of fishing boats discharging their catches to the waiting truck which had come for them, but other than that, it was the most peaceful scene one could imagine. There was no wind to break up the great reflections on the water, and each moored boat was sitting upon its own reflection.

   But then a fizz boat went roaring up the channel and the picture was completely smashed. The water became a churned up mess, and the reflections gone for the time being.

   This is just like gossip or a bit of temper in our lives. We may look great on the outside, and mostly be what we ought to be, but then one of these disturbing factors comes roaring through our day. The picture is gone, and the damage is done. Resentment sets in and the water of our day is disturbed. In some cases it takes a lot of time and effort to make it right, if indeed it can ever come right

    Let’s make sure that we curb our tongue and keep the water of our day with the beautiful reflections of God’s love!

Life Lessons

Our Anchor of Hope

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Last week we had the opportunity of sailing from one harbour to the next in Northern New Zealand. It reminded me of the many happy times we had been sailing ourselves when younger, and when we would spend weeks at a time enjoying the experiences that came along.

It reminded me particularly of one valuable lesson we learned very quickly during those years. At first when we went a quiet bay for some rest and relaxation after a day of sailing, we would drop the anchor, and then go inside for a hot drink. Then if, after a while, we could see that we weren’t in quite the same place as we had been when the anchor went down we would realise that we had drifted, and were much further out in the bay. So we would lift the anchor, and go forwards again, and put out more rope this time, pulling back on it to make sure that it had a good grip in the mud on the bottom. We soon learned to make this check every time the anchor went down.

    It’s a lot like that in life at times. There will be times when we think we have a good hold on things and then we find that the winds of life have picked us up and carried us where we don’t want to be. It is in times like this that as we stop and take stock of what is happening around us; we are to go forwards once more and drop our anchor into the hope that God gives us in His Word, the Bible.

    It is no use merely dropping the anchor; it is not the anchor that does the holding, it is what the anchor is sitting on. If the bottom has a lot of weed on it, the anchor will just slide along the top of it allowing our boat to drift. It is only as we put out more rope and pull back on it making sure that there is a good grip on the bottom, going through the weeds into the mud beneath, that we can rest in staying in one place. The rope is like the rope of faith in our life… the longer it is, the better the grip. The more we trust God in our difficulties, the stronger our faith becomes, and the firmer grip we have in the storms of life.

    Without hope in our life, everything seems pointless, and we tend to get depressed. So it is that without the hope of God’s salvation, we have nothing to look forwards to. God doesn’t intend His people to be swayed around in the storms, but we must do our part by digging deep into His Word for ourselves.

Life Lessons

Near Enough!!

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    We were working on a project together, and I was thinking it was time we were finished. “Well, that’s near enough”, I said as I put my gear down. My brother looked at it, and said, “Near enough is not good enough, Gwenyth, you’ll have to spend a bit more time on it!” Those words have stuck with me for over forty years, and whenever I am tempted to think “Near enough”, they come back to haunt me!

     King Solomon was one who chose what was good, but it was not the best. When he first became king, we are told that one night he had a vivid dream. In it, he heard God tell him to choose whatever he would like and it would be given to him. At this stage, Solomon was still new to being a king, and the thought of having to solve disputes between people at times was overwhelming. So he asked for wisdom to be able to govern the people he was over, as he should. God replied that seeing he had asked this thing that was not so much for himself, but for the benefit of others, that he would be granted this in abundance. Not only that, but he would  also be  given wealth and health.     We see as we read through  the book of Second Chronicles in the Bible, chapters 1-10, how God did indeed bless Solomon with great wisdom  and wealth. But there were times when Solomon thought he knew better than God and acted on his own feelings and desires. He felt that if he had princesses of the neighbouring countries as his wives, that  their fathers would not come to war against him.  But these young women came from pagan backgrounds, and as he listened to them, they gradually wore him down from his belief in the one true God Who had given him all that he had. He felt he had done near enough to what God wanted.     As a result of trying to please his many wives, he even got far enough away from God to make the idols that they wanted. Not only that, but he even placed them in God’s temple that he had built!  Solomon was near enough, but not good enough; he had chosen what was good, but not what was best!

    We have to be so careful that we don’t wander away from God’s instructions to mankind, or we too will miss out on not only what benefits us, but God’s best for us!