Some heroes don’t wear uniforms

The leader of the gang - The king of the school yard delivered a vicious kick, the heavy boot striking the base of the spine. His victim felt his body jolt, but managed to suppress the cry of pain before it could escape. The situation always escalated if he reacted.

His nose was blocked with blood and tears, but he mustn't show his tears. That would be fatal.

The bell rings - finally, and the shouts fade away.

Waiting a minute - he then opens his eyes (well, one of them anyway) and looks around. He is alone in the schoolyard. Getting to his feet, he knew he would get into trouble for being late again!

Hmmm, quite a thing to happen in a schoolyard, but unfortunately, it happens regularly - maybe not a physical fight as such, but emotional bullying - really, it is aggression. 

The bully uses lots of non-physical means to get at their victim. Things such as harassment in torment, name-calling, gossiping to others, and making sure their victim is totally excluded from as many people as possible.

Pretty sad, really!

Totally blessed when we can escape such bullying and exclusion when we go through life.

Bullying can make you feel extremely unhappy and also completely unsafe wherever you are. Bullying can ruin your life if you don't stop it.

We should share our bullied experience with others constantly to prevent bullying from continuing. As adults, we should respond to bullying quickly and consistently, regardless of what sort of bullying is happening.

Talking about bullying can be extremely helpful in lots of situations, like below:-

I am totally gobsmacked when I see parades of men and women in uniform - they astound me as to what they do - there are often marches that include everyone from the Police to the armed forces who are totally committed to their professions.

They look so pristine when in uniform, and they continue in their total commitment to their specific careers. I am completely in awe of so many.

Why am I totally gobsmacked? My friend's grandson, who is just 16 years old, has decided that he really wants to join the police force when he graduates from high school in the next couple of years. I'm so impressed with him. How amazing that he has this dedication so early.

Why does he make this decision? He was bullied so horribly when he started high school - not just verbally and scornfully, BUT physically as well. Hence the story above.

How did he cope with bullying? 

He certainly tried his best at school, but it wasn't good enough - the bullying continued.

He finally told his Mum and Dad, who, in turn, instead of just ignoring the situation and telling him to grow up, they went to the school and had it or with not only the principal but also with the year advisor. 

This is really important - not only about physical bullying but also emotional bullying - Schools should be fully aware that bullying is consistent, unfortunately, and all schools should be aware of that very thing.

I can't help feeling that we here in Australia are so blessed to have the dedication of so many people. People who are aware of what is going on in schools, workplaces, universities, etc.

Seeing parades of people in uniforms is not only encouraging for the populace, but it is also a sign, obviously, that, looking at the parade as such, there must be many who have had heaps of problems and yet they have overcome many things to arrive at where they are today.

And yet....there are so many who aren't wearing uniforms, nor are they attached to any workforce, who are also totally committed in all sorts of incredible ways that help so many people. Many who have been bullied and set upon so many times and yet have outlived it continue in their lives to live for the present and not yesterday.

We are so blessed to have so many people in the armed forces, in the ambulance network, the hospitals. the police forces, etc, and so it goes on  - we are totally so so grateful for the tremendous work they do for us, regardless of what a lot of them have been through.

In the Bible, there are numerous heroes and heroines - here are just a few to name: Abraham, Moses, and Noah. Esther, Joseph, Deborah,  David, Gideon, and Jacob, and so the list goes on.

What had they been through - reading the bible is a real eye-opener - Moses on the run - Joseph bullied and beaten - Jacob scared to come back home after being threatened with death by his brother, and so it goes on.

The biggest hero of the lot, of course, was Jesus - a poor little boy born in a filthy stable years ago - a son of Mary.

Mary, a young virgin found to be pregnant and yet carrying the very son of God. Her husband Joseph was going to cancel the whole wedding thing, but was brave enough to realise just what was happening. Can't possibly imagine what Mary and Joseph must have felt or what they went through, and yet they brought in the Messiah of the world.

You know, regardless of what we have gone through - and I guess we have all got a story to tell - giving our lives over to Christ can have an enormous effect.

The pain caused by bullying can be a silent killer - sometimes, if we have been bullied over the years, our anger can overflow when, in reality, it may be a feeling of rejection!

So what does the Bible say about rejection? In Hebrews 13:5, He says, "I will never leave you or forsake you"- that to me completely blows me away - the fact that God will NEVER leave us, regardless of what has happened in our lives or what continues to happen. 

And then in Jeremiah 31:3 God says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," and then again in Matthew 28:20, "Surely I am with you always."

These verses mean so much to me - God loves us all with a never-ending love. Jesus promised, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; you will find rest for your souls. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11.

God bless you this week - please seek help if you have a burden. Huge blessings.

Toppled Over

Oh, the Tower of Babel

What a story

Here were the people wanting desperately to reach God - what for?

That's a great question!

Did they want to meet Him? - Did they want to confront Him about something? - Did they want to be a god like Him

They definitely wanted to make a name for themselves - they all spoke the same language - they all decided on their own terms exactly what they wanted to do - they also decided, obviously, that they wanted to be like God.

Then...

God, in His wisdom, overruled their total ambition, confused their language, and caused them to scatter.

It would have been very strange - suddenly saying something like "Hey Bill, pass us up the spade will you mate" to suddenly find themselves chatting away in a completely different language that no one around them could possibly understand.

So strange - they probably found others who they obviously didn't know who could speak the same language and understand what they were saying. How odd and how disturbing.

They all had mates and colleagues, and then suddenly no one would understand them - what a shock. Finding other workers in the crowd who could speak the same language and sticking with them was a must, only because no one else could understand them.

This amazing history is one powerful narrative - incomprehensible but truly awe-inspiring.

All those who could speak the same language obviously stuck together and made their way to various parts of the land, and further away from all of the others.

I can imagine exactly why wars broke out after this; there would be rivalry and lots of competitiveness, and I guess as years went on and on, lots of amazing things happened.

I feel humility is something we all learn from this amazing piece of history - humility was pretty much unheard of before the Tower of Babel.

Everyone in those days spoke the same language and was always trying to outdo each other.

God describes humility as an amazing recognition of our dependence on Him, submitting to His will, and recognising others above ourselves. Let's be perfectly clear here, it is not thinking less of ourselves, it is putting others ahead of ourselves in pretty much every situation in which we find ourselves. 

The Bible describes humility as an absence of self - in other words, putting others first - it includes meekness (which doesn't mean cowardice) and a heart attitude. Pride and arrogance really have no part in a life of humility. There are times when we pretend to have a heart attitude, but maybe our hearts are still full of pride and even arrogance.

True humility is really a prerequisite to becoming a Christian and giving our lives to God. When we come to Christ knowing that we are sinners, we must come to Him in absolute humility - if there are any signs of pride or arrogance, then we really need to rethink our way of life.

We desperately need to come to Christ knowing that we have absolutely nothing to offer Him at all - we MUST recognise that what He did on that cruel cross years ago was something that actually paid for our sins. So, to keep asking Him for everything and then getting upset if we don't get it is not what Christianity is all about.

Jesus paid for our sins, and really, that is more than enough. Whatever we get after this is truly a real gift from God Almighty.

Answers to prayer are exceedingly wonderful and truly awesome, but if our prayers don't give us what we want, then we need to thank the Lord God for our redemption that was paid by Jesus on Calvary's cross. And that really should be enough for us.

Our lives can be full of heartache, sickness, and even death, BUT if we have given our lives over to Christ, then our future is sealed - we have paradise to really look forward to.

Does that stop us from praying - certainly NOT! Prayers for our families, friends, and loved ones, and even ourselves, are all a vital part of Christianity. But also accepting God's answer is ALWAYS essential in our prayers.

When Jesus comes back, all of the troubles and heartaches will disappear - then we will be united with Christ in His amazing home He has prepared for us.

This great song by Michael Morrow was created by Him in 2006 and virtually says a lot about our Lord.

"We belong to the day - to the day that is to come.

When the night falls away and our Saviour will return

For the glory of the King is in our hearts. On that day, we will be seen for what we are.

Strong as a mighty rock, our. refuge in the coming wrath

The heart of the bride belongs to Jesus, Jesus.

The earth, in its turning, stops to marvel at the Son of God

And all of that day belongs to Jesus

And all of that day belongs to Jesus, Jesus."

How are you feeling about Jesus and His amazing life that He gave for each of us? When you pray and ask Jesus to come into your life and lead you, you acknowledge your sins and ask Him to take over your life. We may fall over many times and constantly sin, but if we ask God to forgive us, He will - He loves us with an everlasting love.

If you would truly like to give your life to Christ right now, then pray this simple prayer to Him - make sure you mean every word.

Dear Lord Jesus - I know that I am a sinner - I know you will forgive me if I ask you to. Right now, I turn away from my sins and ask you to come into my life and lead me, Amen.

God bless you this week

Man on the run

Ever been "on the run"?  Great question!

I guess in lots of ways we have all been on the run at some point in our lives - we often make little and sometimes BIG mistakes and find ourselves on the run, maybe not literally but on the run trying to hide or correct something we have done that can make our lives an utter horror story,

Way back in the Bible, Judas was "on the run" after he had concocted a huge story to tell the Pharisees about Jesus - makes me wonder just how long Old Judas had been thinking about what he planned to do.

He was probably putting into practice something that he had thought about for a long time.

He was the treasurer of the whole shebang after all - the guy everyone came to when they wanted a few coins to buy what they needed - I guess he made all the others give a full account of what they spent and how they spent it. After all, money is money - and he was the big money keeper - he was in charge,

Makes me wonder why he had it against Jesus in the first place.

Was it because Jesus was ever so willing to share what they had with anyone and everyone? Jesus gave and kept on giving time and time again.

Judas, on the other hand, was trying desperately to keep back the money to pay for this and that and keep them all fed, etc etc, and so he went on keeping his coins and silver in his money bag all safe and sound and I guess he kept it back from the other disciples just how much he actually had all wrapped up neat and tidy.

In lots of ways, I can understand if he was in charge of having to buy things, and of course, Jesus, giving everything away all the time - Judas felt he had to keep money squirreled away so that they would have enough to eat and somewhere to sleep, I guess.

Anyway, as time went on Jesus was giving more and more - treating people well and healing others - Makes me wonder how Judas would have felt when Jesus actually fed the thousands of people, as recorded on the bible, not just once but at least twice given that He had hardly anything to start with and yet he fed thousands until they were all completely full and satisfied.

Surely Judas would have realised that Jesus could have fed them all anyway, and he really didn't need money squirreled away like Judas was doing.

I reckon it was this that caused Judas to betray Jesus the way he did - He saw the chance to gain at least 30 pieces of silver, which he could keep to himself without having to hide it away. 30 pieces of silver! WOW, how about that! - What a great opportunity.

As we know, it all backfired on Judas. He betrayed Jesus in the garden by taking the Pharisees with him, telling them that the one he was going to greet with a kiss was actually Jesus, and that he should be the one arrested.

Judas went and greeted Jesus with a kiss, and that betrayed Jesus to the Pharisees, who promptly arrested Jesus and we know what happened after that - Jesus was horribly tortured and killed so ghastly on the cross - actually nailed to a rough hewn splintery cross hewn from a huge tree which would have weighed so much which Jesus had to carry to Calvary.

So here was Judas watching how he had betrayed Jesus. Obviously, he had second thoughts, and while he watched the proceedings, his heart must have broken when he woke up to what he had just done - he threw the silver back at the Pharisees and then went out and hanged himself - end of story for Judas.

The Pharisees were delighted - not only had they got Jesus, but they got their silver back as well!

Judas has gone down in history as a huge betrayer - what a mistake he made - what a mess.

You know, we all make mistakes - that is life, and unfortunately we all do it. It's pretty important after we give our lives to the Lord that we actually need to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and if we don't, we find it pretty hard to move forward in our lives.

We can have persistent guilt in our lives over past sins and heaps of remorse if we have caused trouble with anyone, and sometimes our decisions can cause heaps of trouble. All of us have sinned - every one of us - God has nothing whatsoever to do with sin - The Almighty God can't even look at sin in any shape.

The amazing thing is that Jesus died on that cruel cross to make the payment for our sins, and everyone who puts their faith in Jesus is fully forgiven of these sins, and God sees us as sinless. 

Does that mean we will never sin again? Of course not, BUT the thing is that we can come to Jesus and keep asking for forgiveness, confessing to Him the sins we commit, maybe often daily. Coming to Christ is essential to have our sins forgiven. (1 John 1:9) 

God's huge forgiveness of our sins gives us the huge ability to forgive ourselves. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ and ask Him to take control of our lives, all of our sins are forgiven. Which is amazing - ALL of our sins, both big and small, include past, present, AND future.

God bless you this week. See you soon.

 

The Mystery

What is a mystery?  

Is it a betrayal? Is it a race against time? Is it a vast secret? Is it a hidden meaning? Is it something tucked away that we will never find? Is it something not understood? Is it something unexplained?  Is it beyond anyone's understanding?

Hmmm, makes you think, doesn't it?

1941 Charlotte is smuggled into Paris right in the smack of this huge war, seeking to find Alain. Is he her father that she never knew? Has he got a secret? Could her dad, Alain, be a friend of Hitler? Could he have a vast fortune tucked away somewhere? What sort of man could he be? It just doesn't bear thinking about.

Struggling to find the answer, Charlotte is hustled from town to town seeking and yearning to find the whereabouts of her elusive father.

1943 Charlotte has traced him into the middle of Paris, working her way with a vast amount of underground assistance to find out that indeed, her Dad is the elusive Alain, and is the main target and linchpin of France's liberation. He has gained huge access to high-ranking Axis officials and is working his way across France in huge liberation mode.

Alain ended up organising air-drops of weapons and supplies and coordinating huge rescues of downed fliers and parachute landings.

Was Charlotte pleased with her dad? Was she in awe of Him? What sort of future could they possibly have?

She never did find out what happened to her father; he had to keep his vast secret from his family and the authorities, and so their lives never clashed. They never met, but through it all, the war was finally over - many perished, but many were saved. 

It was certainly a horrible time -  a time when we hope and pray we will never have to go through again.

So many times we go through trauma and huge problems in all of our lives and times. We plough on regardless of the consequences of all things that have happened to us. We struggle, we grapple, we wrestle, we scuffle, and yet we fight on - we have to survive - that is life.

So why is life like this, and why can't we live perfect, happy, and fulfilling lives right to the end? It's hard, isn't it, to live life like we are teetering on the edge of a huge drop-over.

Unfortunately, sin came in and destroyed a perfect life, and things would never be the same again. Sin crept in through poor old Adam and Eve, and because of that, their very relationship with God was broken, and they began to die physically. Their bodies took on the ageing process just like ours do, and they began to die, slowly at first and then faster and faster towards the end.

When we are born, we all seem to be saddled with original sin caused by Adam and Eve's big hiccup. We are all related in one form or another, which is why the sin effect is evident in us all throughout history.

We are born sinners, and if we don't make a wise and shattering decision, we end up dying sinners, far away from God our Father, and doomed to a life of everlasting torment.

Romans 3:23 says, "We ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So none of us is perfect, not one. And we never will be, not ever, we are totally and utterly doomed to a life of utter torment and destruction. When we die, we will be cast into the lake of fire to live eternally in hell.

Well, that's how it was meant to be because sin entered the world all those years ago. We all have sinned and fallen short of God's amazing love.

That was, of course, until the very fact that Jesus came into the world to save us, to give His life instead of ours and take our sins and chuck them far away, never to be seen and heard of again.

Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me" - you can read it yourself in John chapter 14 and verse 6. Jesus is the only way to come to the Father. Jesus was born, lived, and died just to take away our sins. He took them with Him on that cruel cross and exterminated them for us - all we have to do is to accept His amazing love for us and then ask Him to come into our lives and live through us.

When you think about it, Jesus was the only one who has come and been the sacrifice for sins - he was and will ever be the only sinless person to have walked the face of the earth.

Jesus is the only way to the Father in Heaven, regardless of what others may say and who people worship.

Jesus' death on Calvary was a sacrifice for our sins, and if we decide to BELIEVE and have FAITH, then these two things are critical for our salvation. Jesus died and He bled to death for us, taking the sins of the world on His very life, but only for those who believe and have faith in Him. 

It is believing in the very death of Christ for our sins that we receive eternal life. Ephesians 2 says, "For it is by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH - and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

God bless you all this week, and may you all be so much aware of what Jesus did for all of us on that cross all those years ago.

All characters appearing in this blog are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental