Have you ever thought of life in this way? We went to a funeral the other day, and it struck me again of the brevity of life when you have come to the end of it. When we are younger, the years stretch ahead endlessly (we think) and there always seems plenty of time to do the things we want to, or the things we know we ought to do.

“Tomorrow” we tell ourselves, “We’ll do it (or think about it) tomorrow”.                               But you know, tomorrow never comes. A wise king in the Bible called Solomon thought about these things and this is what he had to say about life…..”To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” He wrote more on these lines in  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8…

His father, King David wrote these words….”As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes; For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place shall know it no more.”

It sparked these thoughts…

Spring….         ages birth – thirty….      Seeds sown

This is the time of life that we lay our foundations….of education, relationships and careers. We learn more in these years than at any other time of life.

Summer ..        ages 30-50…                Weeds grown

These are the busy years…we are so busy raising a family, buying a home and getting established, that we allow the weeds of busyness to stifle any thoughts we might have towards God and the spiritual side of life.

Autumn…        ages 50-70…                Deeds  reaping time

It’s now the time of reaping what we’ve been sowing during the previous years. The habits we’ve formed, either bad or good; our families have grown and gone, and now we have time for the hobbies we’ve always promised ourselves to take up; we still have the energy to travel and see other parts of the world. Our habits take over and we are so busy having a good time that again we put thoughts of the future out of our minds.

Winter…          ages  70-?                    Needs…time’s flown!

Our grandchildren have grown and are now having problems which we can’t help taking on our own shoulders as we watch them flounder along making the same mistakes that we once made. Then we are brought up with a round turn by health problems, and we find that we have new needs. We have to downsize; things we once did with ease, now take all day. Then when we come to the next big-0 birthday, we realise that there is very little time left, and maybe no quality time at that. Our minds are not as clear as they used to be, and it is an effort to think of the future and spiritual things. “Well,” we say, “We’ve lived without God all these years, so we can die without Him too!”

This is the biggest mistake we can ever make. We should take time right NOW to think about the future and get ready to meet our Maker. Remember the trips we used to take and the preparations we made for them? The research we put into where to go and where to stay?  Our final trip is the greatest trip we will ever make….let’s make sure we are ready to go!

Another Living Word…..

Another story that proves that God’s Word is indeed alive, and that whatever God sends it out to do it will do, is the following……

An atheist was boasting that nothing would make him ever change his mind from his beliefs. One day, a friend managed to persuade him to attend an evangelist meeting in his town.

“I’m only going the once”, he said, “And I’ll guarantee I’ll find all the holes in his talk! I don’t believe all that rubbish!”

While the talk was going on, it began to rain quite heavily outside, and didn’t let up even when it was time to go home.

When the speaker was bidding the people goodnight, he said to the atheist, “I’ll take you home in my car to save you getting wet”. The man was quite pleased as he had thought up some more ammunition to give the speaker, and besides he didn’t want to get wet on his walk home.

He brought up his first argument as soon as he got into the car….”What do you think about that, Preacher?” he asked.

“I don’t know anything about all that”, the Preacher replied, “All I know is that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanses from all sin”.

The man thought that didn’t answer his objection at all, so he brought up the next one, finishing with, “What about that one Preacher?”

“I haven’t heard that one before”, the Preacher answered, “All I know is that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanses from all sin”.

By this time the atheist was warming up to his subject, and fired his next objection at the Preacher, only to get the same answer.

After the next couple of objections, they had reached the atheist’s door.

“Good night”, was the Preacher’s parting shot, “and don’t forget that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin!”

A couple of days went by with the Preacher going about his daily tasks. Then at 1 a.m. one night  there was a knock on his front door. He went down to answer it, and found the atheist standing there looking haggard and upset.

“Whatever’s the matter?” the Preacher asked.

“I want to know more”, the atheist replied, “I haven’t slept a wink ever since you took me home after that meeting….all I can hear in my head is ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanses me from all sin’. What does it mean? And how can I get it out of my mind?”

The Preacher took him inside and gladly explained how he could know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son would indeed cleanse him from all sin. All he had to do was to accept this message as from God to him, and agree that he was sinner who needed to be saved. He pointed out the other verse that says, ‘if we confess our sin, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (wrong living)’

The atheist did this and his name was changed immediately from “Atheist” to “Believer”. He went home to sleep the best sleep he had had for years!

We cannot run away from God’s voice….His Word will follow us until we make a conscious decision to either accept what  He says or refuse it outright. It cannot be put off until another day…..we are not promised tomorrow!

A Living Word….

The Bible says of itself, that it is “living and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. (Hebrews 4: 12) 

We might wonder how this is so….surely we can take it up and leave it if we don’t like it, and nothing will happen! Here are a couple of stories that illustrate the power of God’s Word in this day and age…..

A married couple went to their minister after some years, and said that they were on the point of splitting up…it was no good, their marriage just wasn’t working out. The minster was dismayed at this news, but took heart from the fact that they were at least willing to talk about it to him.

“Are you willing to try an experiment for a couple of weeks?” he asked, “How about you read together chapter thirteen of the first book of Corinthians every night and see if it makes any difference to your feelings at the end of that time?”

They agreed to do this and the minister saw them out the door.

At the end of the two weeks, they came back together.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to make a new start” they said, “This passage has shown us what true love really is!”

After some more conversation, they left, and over a period of time they proved the truth of the words that….

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.

“I Love You”….

The phone rang the other day, and as I lifted up the receiver, I heard a little voice saying, “I love you Gran and I’m missing you!”

It was our little great grandson in Australia calling to have a chat with us….what a thrill that gave me! I couldn’t help but think that if we are thrilled when a little child tells us that, how much more is our Heavenly Father thrilled when we tell Him this. Not just tell Him, but to try to please Him in our actions and attitudes as well.

So often we expect to be pleased by Him granting our requests, but we completely forget the other side of the coin! He takes great pleasure in those who love to please Him. Twice we read in the book of Psalms that “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear (to hurt) Him” (147:11) and He “takes pleasure in His people” (149:4)

    The little boy stood looking a bit bewildered in a large and busy railway station. He was clutching a box full of jig-saw pieces to his chest, when he suddenly knocked off his feet by a man in a great hurry rushing to catch his train. The box flew out of his hands, and bits went everywhere over the floor of the station. The boy nearly burst into tears, but bent down and began to look for all his pieces.

The man who had knocked into him was an important business man who was in a great hurry to catch his train. He had had a busy day at his office, and all he wanted to do was to get home and relax. This would be his last train for a good while and he didn’t want to miss it.

But as he looked at the boy scrabbling around on the ground for his bits of jig saw, knowing it was his fault that he was having to do this, he got down with him and began to pick up the pieces as well while all the other tired commuters were hurrying by. He heard the train whistle blow again, and knew it was his last chance to catch it. But he kept picking up the pieces and at last the final one had been found.

“There you are Sonny”, he said to the little boy, “I’m sorry I bumped into you like that”.

“Oh, thank-you Mister”, the little boy said, “Thank-you so much!  Is your name Jesus? That’s what He would do, isn’t it?”

Suddenly missing the train didn’t seem such a big deal after all. How much did he really show the love of His Lord to others? How much do each one of us?

Could we do what this man in the story did?   Let’s remember that our Lord Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of His people, we do it to Him (Matthew 25:35-40; Luke 9:48)

We remember that little ditty our mothers said to us as children….”Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me!” But the fact of the matter is that names DO hurt us! We have to learn to be careful what we say, and often more importantly, HOW we say it.

Words are like ripples on the calm water….they go on for  very long way. Time may erase them to a degree, but the sting of hurtful words are never forgotten totally.

Words said in jest are no better….they can be hurtful to others too. How often we remember what others have said to and about us, as a joke! We don’t forget in a hurry do we!

On the other hand, there are words that build others up, words that are worth listening to and taking notice of. That little old lady sitting in the corner has a wealth of experience behind her….take notice of what she has to tell you. Determine to learn from others’ experiences….don’t be like the teenager who said defiantly to her mother, “I don’t want to learn from your experiences, I want to learn from my own. You’ll be there to pick up the pieces!!”

Let’s make this our New Year’s resolution this year…..learn to be careful what we say and how we say it!

     Baby Joel, born to live!

People sing blithely about Christmas, not even realising what the word “Christmas” means. The following explanation is from Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia……

Christmas (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning  “Christ’s  Mass“) is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christand a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated generally on December 25 by billions of people around the world.

 Have you ever stopped to think that although all babies are born to live, the only baby who was born to die was Jesus Christ? He came into the world for the express purpose of dying to take away mankind’s sin. The angel told this to Joseph, the husband of Mary, “You are to call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins”. (Matthew 1: 20-23)

Peter tells us that it is only by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that our sins can be taken away (1 Peter 1:18-21), and that this was determined before the world was even created, before man was brought into being to sin. God knew, and Jesus knew, exactly what it was going to cost to bring a people to Himself, yet man was still created as he is.

What is being free? A land 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. So we see that to be free we must be in our natural environment. For  a Christian this is to be in touch with the God we profess to belong to. We can only be free while walking in obedience to Him….. once we are walking without the Lord we are out of communion with Him and have no real peace.

Our conscience works overtime at first, and then gradually fades and stops working until some trouble comes into our lives and we are driven to seek God’s face once more. The wonderful thing is, that He is willing to take us up again and give us a second chance. Not only does He give us a second chance, but He also restores our opportunities of service to us and as we find the wings of communion with Him again, we are once more able to soar into our natural environment and be truly free!

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)