Category Archives: Random Devotional Thoughts

Random Devotional Thoughts

What Does Your Past Show?

car crash  A well known sportsman was killed in a car crash, along with his wife….both young people with still many years ahead of them. A great outpouring of grief followed this event and the news people followed the funeral in detail. Many eulogies spoke of his past events, but one snippet on the news item brought back memories of some distant demeanors that had once made the news in the past. A video clip dragged up from the past showed this in detail.

It brings to mind how our past has a way of catching up with us, sometimes when we least want it to. Another case of this was when a young woman traced her birth father, and knocked on his door one day announcing she was his daughter! His wife and family had no idea of this young woman’s existence, and the shock was great. We can only imagine how they must have all felt!

But this is nothing to how we will feel when faced with all our past unforgiven sins. The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death, while the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)”

For a gift to be enjoyed, it must be taken and opened….it is a two way thing. God has done His part in providing and presenting this gift; the least we can do is to take it and thank Him for it.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Where Are You Going?

2015-06-01 09.43.25“Hey, where are you off to?” Robin called out to Tim as he saw him walk past his gate.

“Oh, nowhere in particular”, said Tim sheepishly. He knew very well where he was intending to go, but Robin was the last person he wanted to know.

“I’ll come too”, Robin said as he ran inside to get his shoes on.

Are you going to places that you are ashamed of? Do you watch things that fill your mind with evil thoughts? What do you do with your fingers as you sit in front of the computer?

We have to take stock of ourselves every day if we want to please the Lord. It is no use saying one thing to others and then going and secretly doing the opposite. This leads to nothing but disaster….for others and ultimately for ourselves.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Clearing up the Rubbish.

     Des  We were staying on a friend’s property in our caravan recently. This place had high hedges around the paddock edges. Our friend had taken his hedge trimming machine into these paddocks to cut and trim back the tall trees, and this had only made a worse mess than ever. The branches and cut pieces of the trees all fell on the ground beneath as they were cut off. There was no way the grass would grow up fresh and sweet there.

We went home and came back the following week. By this time he had taken his tractor into the paddock again, and had pushed all the scraps and branches into large heaps ready for burning when the weather was right. It was surprising what a large area was now clear right up to the tree trunks, enabling the grass to grow there as extra feed for the cattle.

It made me think how this is a lot like our lives. We allow things to creep in and crowd out what is helpful to others. Our time is taken up with things of no real value, and we have no time for the things that matter. Sometimes the things that we do are creative and beautiful, but if we can’t give them away to someone who appreciates them, we are really just wasting our time. Other things are just frivolous time fillers just to keep us occupied.

These are the things that need to be cut off and let fall to the ground, and then pushed up into piles and burned. Let’s make sure that we clean up around the edges of our lives, and give ourselves more time and space to do things for others.

The Bible talks about building our lives with wood, hay and stubble, and how these things are easily burned, whereas if we build with valuable metals these only get refined if a fire goes through them  (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

Random Devotional Thoughts

The Glassblower.

WGLASS2We had some visitors from another area, and were taking them around the local sights. One of these was a glass blower at  work behind the gallery that was selling a lot of his work. There were some beautiful pieces on display, all brightly coloured and different shapes. The man was in his workshop at the back of the gallery which was open for people to watch him at work.

We went in and up the stairs where we could look down on him plying his art. The furnace was heated up and the tongs he was using were red hot. As he pulled the shaped vase out of the heat, he pulled and twisted at the neck of it to form a shapely edge. But time and time again, he had to put it back into the heat because he wasn’t satisfied with how it looked.

It reminded me of the Master Glass Blower at work in our lives, as He moulds and perfects His people to make them become what He wants them to be. We may not like the heat of the fire we have to go through, or the pulling and twisting that we are subject to, but when it is all over, we are more like the finished article that He wants us to be….a thing of beauty and fit for His use.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Time for a Change!

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If you have been following this site, you will see that there are a few changes. I have been wanting to update my site for a while and have finally taken the plunge which I hope will be an improvement in the end! It’s a bit like the road works in our local area, the whole place looks a mess while the foundation is being laid, and the traffic is held up at times, but the end result is well worth it.

So many things in life are like this. We look into a certain subject, play around with it a bit, think of the pros and cons of it, and then make a decision. Some things have far reaching results and we have to live with the results of our choices. One thing that comes to mind, is our marriage partners. Whoever we choose, will have a great influence on our way of life and our eventual way of thinking, so it pays to be very careful before even starting. An old saying is, “Use your head, before you lose it!” Another saying is, “If you are doubtful, leave it alone. It’s like a shirt collar, if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty!”

People are more particular in the things of the spirit than in any other field. We all seem to have an inborn resistance to the things of God. So many people will not even look into these things, their hackles go up when anything like this is mentioned. Surely before we can make an informed decision about anything, we should do some research from reliable sources before we push it all to one side. After all, those who follow the Christian way of life have nothing to lose if they are wrong, whereas those who ignore it have everything to lose if it is the right way!

So I hope this site will show signs of improvement in the end, and at least I have the satisfaction of saying I DID try!

Random Devotional Thoughts

How Much Does God Know?

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O LORD, You have searched me, and known me. You know when I sit down and when I get up again; You understand all my thoughts far and near; You surround me and know everything I do. For there is not a word I think and speak, but, lo, O LORD, You know it altogether.

The preacher was talking about these verses, saying how God’s knowledge far surpasses anything that people know. We don’t even know our own hearts. We know what we should be like, and we know what we would like to be like, but do we ever get there?

It’s like the story of a small town gossip who knew everything about everybody. One day there was a well known person in this small town who went before the local judge, with a large audience of the townspeople there to see what was going to happen. Mrs. Smith, the local gossip was there as well.

As they began the proceedings, one of the lawyers called out, “Mrs. Smith, you know everyone in this town, is the prosecuting lawyer an honest man?”

“I attended his birth Sir,” she replied, “and he’s the biggest whiner, right from the day he was born until now. He can’t be trusted as he gets even the worst offenders off. No, I wouldn’t say he’s an honest man!”

The other lawyer then asked, “Well, Mrs. Smith, can my opponent be believed in his accusations?”

“I wouldn’t trust him”, she said, “I’ve known him since I used to baby-sit him for his parents, and he took some watching I can tell you. He’s a real sneak!”

The judge leaned forwards and beckoned the two lawyers up to his bench. Leaning forwards he said in a hoarse whisper, “If either of you two ask her opinion of me, I’ll have you arrested for contempt of court!”

We may smile at this story, but it illustrates the futility of trying to hide anything from the Almighty God. We are also told in the Bible that one day we are going to stand before God as the Judge, and WE will give an account of ourselves and what we have done, to Him. No-one else will accuse us; we will accuse ourselves because we will see ourselves as He sees us  (Matthew 12:36-37). We needn’t think we can only say the good things we have done and said; every single mean and nasty thing we have said and thought will be dragged out of us. There is only one way to get out of this predicament, and that is to confess these things to the Lord NOW while we are still alive on this earth. He has promised that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, giving us a clean, fresh start once more. (1 John 1:9)

Then we can say with the psalmist, the last verses of this same psalm we started with, Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  (Psalm 139:23-24)

Random Devotional Thoughts

Quiet Waters!

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“Take it steady!” I called out, “Whooops! That was a big one!”

We had been out fishing and although the day wasn’t all that good, we hadn’t expected the wind to get up as soon as it had. By the time we had been fishing for a short time, we could see white horses (tops of the waves breaking) rollicking down mid stream past the point we were anchored behind.

We decided we had better give up the idea of catching any fish, and head back across the inlet to the boat ramp. Our boat was a small runabout which didn’t take too kindly to these sort of conditions, and we had to navigate carefully across the rough waters watching the breaking wave tops as we went.  At last we were nearing the point with the quieter waters behind it. What a relief it was to leave the white water behind us and have a smooth run back to the bay we had left a short while before!

2015-02-17 08.13.39Once in the bay, it was so calm it was hard to believe that the conditions were so different around the point. There are many times as we go through life that we have experiences like this. Sometimes we find ourselves in turbulent waters through our own fault. We may not have looked far enough ahead as to where our actions were leading us until we found ourselves in over our heads as it were. Or perhaps, as we had found this particular day, circumstances built up around us before we had time to get ourselves back in clear waters. But with careful handling it is possible to get to calmer waters once more.

We read in our newspapers of so many who don’t make it back safely, and they become another statistic with grieving families left behind.

Then again we read the story in the Bible of the followers of Jesus who He had told to go across the lake. He went with them, but being tired, He lay on the seat in the stern of the boat and went to sleep. The wind got up with violent seas, and they had a job to keep the boat afloat. They woke Him up in the end, saying they were about to sink. He stood up and cried out to the wind to stop blowing and it suddenly became calm….not just the shrieking of the wind stopping but the violence of the waves as well. This made them more afraid even, than they had been in the storm.

“Who is this Man?” they asked each other, “How is it that He can do these things?”

He just looked at them and quietly said, “Where is your faith?”

It is like this for us. Circumstances seem about to swamp us and overflow into our “boat”. There seems to be no help for us anywhere. Remember, if we know Jesus Christ as our Lord, we always have One with us in our boat Who can calm our storms. We just have to call on Him in faith, do what we can, and leave the rest to Him. Even if the storm doesn’t immediately calm down, we can experience His peace as we commit everything to Him.

If we do not know Him personally, all we have to do is to cry out to Him, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” and that is the sweetest cry He can hear which He will never refuse. We are told that God will not despise a broken and contrite heart.

Random Devotional Thoughts

Don’t Push God Too Far!

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I’ve been reading a book about some of the early explorers of the Pacific, and their contacts with the native people of the islands. The explorers found the lifestyle of these people to be idyllic, living as they did where food grew easily and fish were plentiful around their shores.

On the flip side of this was the bondage they were under to their  ancient culture of spirit worship and rituals which had to be strictly adhered to, under pain of curses and death from these spirits.

When the white men appeared and wanted to trade for food and fresh water, the people were at first afraid and apprehensive, but as they got to know them and found that they had many things that they (the Islanders) didn’t have access to, the different chiefs would try to “adopt” them so they could get their hands on these things. During these interactions between the white men and the islanders, the chiefs took Captain Cook ashore to the temple of their ancient gods. They gave him the name of their chief god and the people bowed down with their faces covered, giving him worship and reverence.

At the same time, Captain Cook’s temper with both his own men and with the islanders began to inflame. It was shortly after this, in January of 1779 that Captain Cook was killed while ashore with the local people.

It was ten years later in April of 1789, that Captain Bligh was once again sailing around these same islands. He made the reaquaintance of some of the same chiefs, and once again they paid him homage as a representative of their spirit gods. Strangely enough after a few weeks of this interaction, Bligh began to act violently towards his men. He too, was given homage and worship by the people. As his temper grew more violent, this led ultimately to mutiny on his ship. It almost seemed that both these men had opened themselves up to some sort of demon possession which showed itself in the violent outbursts of temper.

This story reminded me that God says He will not share His glory with any other….not only had these two great sea captains taken man’s glory and worship for themselves but they in turn were giving it to these heathen spirit gods. (Isaiah 48:11)

God’s judgment fell on both these men in different ways….Captain Cook was killed by these people, clubbed to death on the beach in view of his ship, and Captain Bligh was forced to leave his ship by his mutineering crew.

The boat that made this journey was only meant to carry fifteen and that for just short distances. Bligh managed to sail safely across the Pacific to Australia and thence to Timor and civilisation, going down in history as an epic story of endurance.

We are told in his story that Bligh had “a spiritual awakening” as the result of his ordeal and turned to God…he certainly gave God the credit for a safe journey and their safe arrival later. God dealt with both these men in different ways….one never had any further chance while the other one was given a second chance. Let’s make sure that we don’t push God too far in His mercy, patience and grace!