Category Archives: Random Devotional Thoughts

Random Devotional Thoughts

What is Life?

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I was watching a young Mum with her newborn baby the other day, and got to thinking how this little life is there for ever. Everything that the child will grow into is already in place except its attitudes, and these are up to the parents to teach and show as the child develops. What an awesome responsibility, and one that so many people take so lightly!

    Life has a beginning at conception and then grows as the child is born and takes its first breath. This life does not end at death, it just begins! What we have been on earth lays the foundation for what we will be in the next life…just as Jesus said, “What we bind on earth will be bound in heaven.”(Matthew 18:18)

 This life is just the beginning of eternity. Every baby that takes a breath exists for ever, for eternity….life on earth is just a dot, and what we do with it is up to us! It is crucial in the extreme, and is something that must not be pushed to one side…we have no option but to examine the matter thoroughly if we would be true to ourselves. Our eternal destiny depends on it.

    We went to a friend’s funeral service the other day, and those who were Christians were rejoicing in the fact that we will see him again one day and that there is an eternal confidence of  this. Those of his relatives who did not know the Lord had no such confidence…for them he was gone for ever. They wanted to think that he was finished, ended, and that the same fate would one day be theirs, but this is not what the Bible teaches.

Death is not the end for any human being, it is only the beginning of eternity, an eternity to be spent either with God in His presence or an eternity without Him in the depths of despair, and we have the answer to this in our hands. As one Old Testament leader said to his ;people….”Choose this day who you will serve…whether the gods of the nations around you, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)

Jesus said….”I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly!”  ( John 10:10)  and…

“This is life eternal…that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ  Who You sent.” (John 17:3)

Random Devotional Thoughts

God’s Word is Like….

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    I was reading the verse from Hebrews 4:12 where it describes God’s Word as being ” quick (living) , and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.

     There is nothing so convicting and convincing as God’s Word if we allow it to sink into our minds. It IS possible to shut one’s mind to it, but if we do that, it won’t be long before its influence on our ways and thinking will disappear and we will become hard and unyielding.

    This verse shows that it is like an extremely sharp two edged sword, cutting both ways, as it goes in and as it comes out…there is a story that illustrates this point perfectly….

   There was a man once who had didn’t believe in all this God rubbish (as he put it). One of the old time evangelists came to his district and was holding meetings several times a week. One of our man’s friends persuaded him to go to one of these meetings.

“You know I don’t believe in all that stuff”, he said complainingly to his friend, “I’ll go just the once, but no more, mind!”

He sat through the meeting, working out all his arguments against the preacher in his mind. His chance came when the preacher offered to take him home.

“Well, Sir,” our man said, “I don’t believe all that stuff you told us tonight. What about…..?” and he presented his first argument.

The preacher was silent a moment and then he said, “I don’t know about that, all I know is that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin.”

Our friend was a bit taken aback. He hadn’t expected a reply like that. But he rallied and then put out his next argument which was guaranteed (he thought) to get the preacher’s hackles up.

    Again the preacher was silent a moment, and then he said, “Well, I haven’t heard that one before, but all I know is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin.”

Our friend wasn’t going to be deterred, and he thought of several more arguments that he felt sure the preacher had no answers for.

    But each time the preacher just quietly said, “Well, I don’t know about that…..all I know is that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin!”

     By this time they had reached our friend’s house and the preacher pulled up to let him out. Our friend gave one more parting shot as he left the car…”Well, I’m not coming back any more to hear that stuff!”

“That’s fine friend,” the preacher said, “But just remember,” as our friend went off into the darkness, “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleans us from all sin!”

   The preacher went home, prayed for our friend and didn’t expect to see him again. But God’s Word which had been used as a sword, and as a strong hammer which can break rocks, began to work in his mind. A couple of nights later, the preacher heard a knock on his door just he had gone to bed. He opened the door, and there stood our friend looking rather distraught and haggard.

“I haven’t been able to sleep a wink since that meeting the other night,”  he said, “All I can hear in my mind are those words, the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us from all sin….I can’t get rid of them. What do I have to do to put my mind at rest?”

“Come on in,”  the preacher said, “It’s never too late to talk about the things of God”. He was able to explain to our friend that the way to have peace in his mind, was simply to tell the Lord that he realised he was a sinner and needed to be made clean from all the bad thoughts and habits he had formed over the years.

   He gladly did this and became a different man as a result. He had different aims now, and went to different places. The old ways didn’t attract him any more. Now he could say, and mean it with all his heart….. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleans me from ALL sin!”

Random Devotional Thoughts

Where is Your Helmet?

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David, the Psalmist in the Bible, could say… “For You are my hope, O Lord GOD: You are my trust from my youth” (Psalm 71:5).

 I was listening to a preacher the other day who was talking about hope. Not hope with the thought of it may or may not happen, but hope as a confidence and certainty. There is another verse in the Bible where it says to put on the helmet of the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Once we have this helmet firmly on our head, no matter how many darts of doubt and fear Satan fires at us, we can overcome them.

    The law in New Zealand says that it is compulsory for every cyclist to wear a helmet while riding their bike on the road. It is no use carrying it on the handlebars of the bike, because that won’t keep us safe if we have an accident. We have to have it on our head  to be safe. Every time we have an impact, we have to adjust it and wear it properly again.

   So it is when troubles hit us on our ride through life, we have to adjust our helmet of hope and get on our bike and go on again. Every negative thought that Satan gives us, we have to counteract with our helmet of hope, and count our many blessings.

  It is no use counting our blessings on our fingers and our troubles on the calculator, we are to do it the other way around. Every new morning we are to put on our helmet of hope and count our blessings; we are to firmly fasten it with thanksgiving to God, and to resist negative thoughts which come from the evil one. We will then be able to face the new day with a positive and confident “hope” as we go to work.

Random Devotional Thoughts

How Old is Your Soul?

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The older we get, the more we tend to think about what lies ahead. We get to the stage of avoiding going to reunions where everyone looks SO old! Then we realise that they are probably thinking the same about us!

   It gets to the stage when invited to a grandchild’s engagement or birthday party, that we look around and see with horror that we are probably the oldest ones there!

   I stopped to think about this one day and remembered an incident when a young man said to his grandmother, “Granny, tell me, how old do you feel?” (She was in her early eighties by this time).

“Well,” she said, “It’s like this, I know my outside looks old and wrinkly and my bones ache when I get up, but inside I don’t feel any older than fifteen!”

“Really!” said the young man astonished, as he went on his way.

    The reason for this is that a soul is ageless. It never ages. It has been made to live for ever regardless of the age of the body it inhabits and when it dies. Every soul is precious in the sight of God, and His great desire is that each one will live with Him for ever.

    But along with God’s great love which people like to think about, goes God’s innate holiness and sense of justice. All wrongs must be righted and dealt with, and we would all agree with that. God knew that man could never pay the debt of all these injustices so He took on Himself to pay for these in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, the only sinless Person who has ever lived on earth.

   We may choose to not believe this, and this is our right, but then we must bear the consequences. God has done His part, and now we must do our part which is humbling ourselves to accept this free gift  so that our soul will live for ever in God’s presence. Don’t let anyone put you off making the right decision because the alternative of living without God or anything good for ever and ever doesn’t bear thinking about!

Random Devotional Thoughts

What Happened to Her?

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There was a newcomer in the town basin among all the other sailing boats. She was sleek, shiny and polished and everyone wondered who she was and where she had come from. She was beautiful, a real lady if ever there was one!

There was a notice pinned to the bollard she was tied up to giving her name, port of origin and owner’s name. She had come from overseas across the Pacific Ocean and found a haven in our Town Basin. There was no doubt that she was very well cared for.

There were articles about her and her owners in the local papers and as time went by she became a fixture, and part of the landscape. We always looked for her as we went by. Nearly nine months went by, and it was announced that she would leave for warmer waters before our winter months. A new motor was installed, and the engineer who did the work shook his head as he looked at the engine bed. “I can’t in all good conscience sign this job off” he said, “I don’t like the look of the bottom of this boat”.

The captain took no notice of these forebodings, and announced he was leaving shortly regardless. He went further north to another popular harbour, and slipped out into blue waters disappearing over the horizon with people barely realising he was gone.  However, he did keep in touch by radio for the first few days.

He had left New Zealand waters by this time and a tropical cyclone was forming in the seas to his north. He made one last call giving his position before the storm hit. Then there was nothing more. Silence.  The yacht was never heard from again. People searched by plane and boat for some weeks without finding anything.

We think this is a tragedy, and so it is. Yet there are millions of people getting ready for the greatest journey of their lives just polishing the surface of their ship without going any deeper to make sure that the ship is seaworthy at the bottom of the hull. We must ask ourselves if the hull of our life is seaworthy enough to get us there. And if we do get there, has the Harbour Master of our destination received our advance papers of entry? Will He recognize the name of our ship as we pass the harbour entrance?  How sad to arrive only to be told, “I don’t know you, your certificate of entry has not arrived ahead of you!”

Jesus himself said this….         Not every one that says unto me, “Lord, Lord”, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your  name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works?”

And then will I profess unto them, “I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity”. (Matthew 7:21-23)

 What does the certificate of our arrival say?  And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has  the Son has  life; and he who has  not the Son of God has not life.   (1 John 5:11-12)

How do we get this certificate? We just have to apply for it, ask for it, as simple as that! And what’s more it is freely given when asked for sincerely and wholeheartedly.

 

 

Random Devotional Thoughts

The Unexpected

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The summer holidays are looming around the corner. Whether we like it or not, there are some people who will go away from home and not return.  We do not know who it will be; we certainly do not think it will be ourselves! But no matter how careful we are on the roads, the unexpected can happen at any time.

We have had two unexpected deaths in the last two weeks in our small community, and neither were due to a car crash. Both people were in younger age brackets, and both were accidental, sudden tragedies.

One was a fit man in his late forties, who was taking his young son to the local BMX circuit for an afternoon of fun and exercise. He sent his boy ahead of him and then set off behind him. As he went over one of the jumps, something went wrong and he flipped off his bike landing on his head, and breaking his neck. The doctors said that if he had survived, he would have had no quality of life at all. Small comfort to his family.

Then a woman in her thirties was walking down the street towards the local park. As she was going down the slope, she noticed a car seemed to be stuck on the verge and was revving its motor up trying to get out. She skirted around the back of it and at the very moment she was directly behind it, the driver’s foot slipped and with a jolt the car reversed into her, squashing her against a brick wall  behind her. She didn’t stand a chance and died at the scene before the ambulance could get to her.

Neither of these people knew when they left home that they wouldn’t be returning that day, or ever again. These incidents show us how uncertain life is. We aren’t promised tomorrow. We aren’t even promised the end of the current day. The only moment we have is NOW.

The only certain thing about life is that it is going to end one day. Whenever there is a birth, there will be a death. But no-one knows when.

There is a verse in the Bible that says, “Teach me to number my days (consider my mortality); so that I may live wisely” (Psalm 90:12) 

   Let’s make sure that we consider these things and be ready to meet our Maker, no matter how suddenly or unexpectedly it may happen.

 

Random Devotional Thoughts, Uncategorized

Trusting in God.

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“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”.

As I read those words in my morning Bible reading recently, my mind went back many years ago to the time when we HAD put confidence in what people had told us and were badly let down. We were contemplating buying a commercial building with two tenants leasing it. The tenant downstairs seemed reliable enough, but the we had some doubts about the ones upstairs. We asked them how long they were likely to need the lease for, and they said as long as they didn’t expand, there was no likelihood of them moving. So with that assurance, we bought the building.

For a few months, everything went well, and then the tenants upstairs gave notice that they were moving but would continue paying their rent until the end of their lease in six month’s time. This was a blow that we had hoped we wouldn’t have to face. Once the lease ran out, we were left with only half the income we had reckoned on, and as time went by we were unable to lease out the top floor. It was either too big, or there wasn’t enough parking. It was certainly never classed as being too small by any prospective tenant!

Things were not easy and we began to wonder if we had made a mistake in “putting our confidence in man “. We had prayed about the proposition before buying it and done our homework as thoroughly as we could, but now the only conclusion we could come to was that we must have made a mistake in buying the place.

During this time, my morning Bible reading was about the time when the Lord told His disciples to row across the lake, all the time knowing what was going to happen. He knew the storm was going to come and toss them about. Yet He still told them to go. They hadn’t made a mistake in setting off across the lake….they went at His bidding. He didn’t divert the storm, He allowed things to work out their course.  He knew He would meet them in their hour of desperate need and calm the storm.

After reading this story, my mind settled down somewhat. We hadn’t made a mistake after all, the Lord just wanted to teach us that He was in control and would release us from the situation in His good time. It didn’t happen overnight but the building eventually sold and we were released from the situation we were in. How relieved we were and overjoyed at not having to go through this hard time any more!!

I now know that whatever comes our way, God is always in control. If things are easy, we must give Him thanks, and when things come tough, we are to tighten our belts (figuratively) and still give Him thanks that things are no worse than they are! Above all, we are not to put our confidence in what people tell us, but to always trust in God and what He says.

Random Devotional Thoughts

How Well do you Listen?

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“Could you run down to the grocery store and get me a couple of things please Honey?”      Debbie asked her new husband.

“Why sure”, Jeff replied only too happy to oblige.

“I’ll give you a list”, Debbie went on.

“No, no” Jeff insisted, “I’ll be OK. What do you want?”

“Well, I need some self-rising flour, and a packet of Twinings tea”, she said as she wiped her hands on the towel.

Jeff bounded off, happy to do his beloved’s wish.

He got to the shop and found the section for baking needs. “Flour” he muttered, and then looked at the array of different sorts of flour before him. “Now what sort did she ask for?” he asked himself. High grade, plain white, brown, self-rising, bread flour. Her instructions flew out of his mind.

It was in the days before cell phones, so he made a wild guess and picked a packet off the shelf.

It was the same in the tea section. “Tea”, he muttered, “Now what sort did she ask for?”

Green tea, black tea, cheap tea, expensive tea…. Nerada tea, Bell tea, Choysa tea, Twinings tea? He made a stab and picked a packet up and put it in his basket.

When he got home, Debbie saw what he had brought. “Those aren’t the ones I asked for Jeff”, she wailed, “Why didn’t you listen?”

“Well, I did get flour and tea”, he said.

You see, Jeff had heard, but he hadn’t really listened. This what so many of us are like with what God tells us. Yes, we hear that God loves us, but we don’t listen to the fact that He is a holy God and can’t stand sin. We hear that He wants to bless us, but we don’t listen to the fact that He only blesses those who give their lives to Him and do their best to follow Him. We may even know that verse that says that “all things work together for good”, but we don’t take notice that is only for those who love God and are doing what He wants them to. Let’s make sure that we REALLY listen to what God is saying to us, and then act on it. If Jeff had really LISTENED to Debbie, he would have taken the right things home for her!!