My Tribute

It's truly amazing what the mind believes when you are in a hurry to do what you need to do. We can get really carried away with all the things that are happening in our lives, and it goes on.

Our minds are amazing - they dictate to us what needs to be done, what needs to be amended, and often, sadly enough, they tell us all sorts of lies and crazy things, which we believe and will cause us all sorts of grief and anguish.

The "prince of this world," Satan! loves to goggle our minds and stops us from seeing the very marked truth that screams to us and shows us the very image of God through the life of Jesus Christ.

Satan has pulled the wool over the eyes of so many people and has stopped them from seeing and even thinking about what possibly could be true. The very fact that Satan has become a huge obstacle to make so many people 'blind' to the truths of their very need to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is a huge obstacle for so many people.

Jennifer makes her way over to the podium - a thousand things are going on in her mind - she is not sure why she is going except that after the guy out front said that anyone wanting to accept Jesus as Lord of their life should come down the front to talk to someone about accepting Jesus as No. 1 in their lives.

She felt a huge tug in her heart, and for the very first time, she felt so strongly the need to have Jesus in her life. Up until now, her parents had described Jesus as just a 'story', and he was seriously cute!

After tonight, sitting there with a couple of friends (and she didn't really hear what the guy was saying out the front), she felt this gigantic urge to walk out the front to somehow come to Jesus - she needed to pay him her tribute - and her huge thanks for everything he had done for her.

Suddenly, what Jesus did on that cross all these years ago all made sense. He died for her to pay for her life of sin - all those times her conscience was worrying her - all those times she had to push herself forward, not thinking of others - all those times her jealousy got the better of her and she put people down so often behind their backs, and it went on and on.

Not that she was overwhelmed by the address by whoever was talking out the front, BUT something inside of her clicked, and she knew she had to make a decision - a decision that she knew would affect her life from now on.

When she went out the front and made a commitment to the Lord of heaven, she knew in her heart without being told that her life would go on seemingly as normal, but in her heart, she knew that she had changed inside. She realised that her life would change, but she was fully aware that she would be making a lot of mistakes, and what would happen after that.

When she went out the front, there stood a lady with a big smile on her face and a BIG welcome hug.

She sat with Jennifer and talked a lot about her decision to come wandering down the front. Jennifer explained that she didn't really listen to the sermon at all, but she felt that God had spoken to her in a very special way. The lady explained that it was actually God who talked to her and not the minister at all. She also explained that the decision she was taking tonight would actually miraculously change her life.

That miraculous way was that her life path (which often can be hard to negotiate) was now going to end in heaven, where she would meet her saviour, Jesus Christ, in person. She also explained that while here on earth, she was going to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

The miraculous part of that, as the lady explained, was that when we make mistakes (as we all do) that we are constantly reminded that "YEP! You've made a mistake." Come to Jesus and confess your sin and ask His forgiveness - of course, He will.

She also explained that no matter what we have done, God will accept us into His amazing kingdom when our time comes, because we have asked Him to lead our lives, and we are going to trust Him, regardless of what may happen in life.

The lady also explained that because God, in His mercy, has accepted us and granted us eternal life with Him, that is indeed a huge and amazing gift. She explained that God always answers our prayers, but we can't expect an answer in the way we expect for every single one of our requests. 

Does that stop us from asking God to answer our requests? Not at all - pray in faith knowing that God, in His mercy, will keep us ever close to Him regardless of whatever happens to us or our loved ones here on earth.

Jennifer was pretty excited - she felt overwhelmed and yet hugely overcome with thankfulness for God's amazing gift of eternal life for her, regardless of what she had done in the past.

You can come to Christ right now if your heart asks you to. All you need to do is accept His great love and sacrifice for you, accept by faith His life and love - Put Him before everything else, and I can guarantee that your life will change amazingly - you may not feel it straight away, but I know you will change as a person.

Give your life to Jesus today.

God bless you this week  - looking forward to getting back in contact next time.

Log in to my account

 How many times have I seen this on the computer - I am so (very often) bewildered by it all. Go to pay your bill and have to press the key which says "Log in to my account," so there you go, it is all over to you - all they ever want is your $$ and be quick about it.

I shouldn't be whining - when you consider what is happening in the world around us, we live in a special place here in Australia, which is pretty comfortable considering what other people are going through. So, I thank the Lord that we are here.

I am so overwhelmed when we see the world around us. So many people take for granted the actual creation of God - the amazing start of each day and the equally amazing end of each day. The creation of the Earth as we know it. The stunning sunrise, then the equally stunning sunset. God's incredible creation.

When we read Genesis and how God created the earth, it really does blow your mind - God was here well before time! Which in itself never ceases to amaze me. He created time when you think about it.

Our beautiful world is amazing, even though many in this world of ours are suffering horribly, and their particular world is falling apart just by looking at it. BUT God's creation of our world, His invisible attributes, His eternal and amazing power, and of course His very divine nature stand out so visibly in all of creation - even though we take it so much for granted.

When, on the odd occasion, we stand back and look at God's amazing creation (if you haven't done it, then I suggest you do), we can just catch a real glimpse, and sometimes it's more than a glimpse - it's a real whack over the head as we consider there are over 100 billion galaxies and when we stand and look we can see the glory and the total might of God.

Even when we consider the very intricacies of life as we know it, well, it never ceases to amaze me.

God's very presence is in every living cell - there are 96,560 kilometres (60,000 miles) of blood vessels all placed in correct and amazing places in each of our bodies - WOW, what an amazing God we have.

So when you think about it, what does it mean to be in the presence of God, or in other words, to be close to God, which in itself is amazing as it sounds.

When Adam and Eve were created, God was with them all the time, personally and spiritually. Then, unfortunately, when they sinned, it meant that no longer could they, and of course, we ever have real face-to-face and heart-to-heart conversations with God. That to me would have been truly awesome. Instead, God had to turn away from them and us because he couldn't look at sin.

That is why God sent His son Jesus to live here on earth in a sinless and holy way and to die and shed his blood for all of us so that He would atone for the whole sins of the world. 

Of course, we have to accept his forgiveness, come to God through the death of Jesus, who died for us to atone for our sins. If we decide NOT to come to Jesus and ask His forgiveness, then we can't or ever will be able to come to God. 

The very fact that Jesus died for us can wipe away any sins we have committed or will commit in the future, BUT of course, we have to ask Him into our lives and make Him No. 1 in every situation where we find ourselves.

Once we have given our lives over to God, we never lose the gift of salvation, no matter how quickly or badly we fail - we never sin enough after giving our lives to God that we lose our salvation. Of course, we must continue to come to God, asking for forgiveness and relying totally on His Holy presence to guide our lives.

No matter how badly we fail through life in our Christian walk with God, we never sin so badly as to lose the miraculous miracle of salvation given to us through the very death of Jesus, who died to save us from our sins. I can imagine how sin angers God so so much, and he can't look at sin, BUT because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and saviour, he will still be our God.

All of us, unfortunately, continue to sin because that is the world we live in, and human nature, being what it is, dictates to us all sorts of weirdness. But God accepts us through the very blood of Jesus, which was sacrificed for us all those years ago.

BUT...Being part of God's amazing family is and will continue to be one BIG JOY! Being gloomy in God's presence is and can be normal, so don't knock yourself out if life's misery can override your happiness, but God, in His wisdom, understands everything we are going through.

Underneath all of what life throws at us, perseverance through countless heartaches is at the core of our salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The very presence of God in our lives increases and really helps us through the many crises we may face, as we often have to travel along life's rocky paths.

So...keep your faith strong in our Lord - keep looking to Him for guidance and encouragement as you travel along this week.

God bless you heaps and hope to see you next time

We are Truly blessed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority

This is an actual case registered by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority...

"Around 9pm, on Monday, 29 September, a Westpac Rescue Helicopter was tasked by NSW Ambulance and asked to plan for a winch extrication of a passenger suffering a serious medical condition on board a cruise ship off Seal Rocks, northeast of Port Stephens. 

Due to the distance offshore, an aircraft from Essendon in Melbourne was dispatched by AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) and provided top cover during the rescue. The NSW Ambulance critical care paramedic from the helicopter's critical care medical team was winched onto the vessel and treated a man in his 60s, who was stabilised before being winched off the ship and airlifted to John Hunter Hospital."

This is just one of the most frequent cases of paramedics saving lives off our coast here in Newcastle, Australia - we are really and truly blessed.

It happens all too often, unfortunately - many people come to all sorts of grief off our coast. We have so many beaches that it is a constant job for so many people in all kinds of situations. As I mentioned, we are truly and honestly blessed to live where we do.

Grief is an awful thing; so many times we have seen people truly overcome by grief, which can affect all of us in so many ways. What some people see as truly immeasurable grief, to others, it may not seem to be grief at all.  Everybody is so different.

I am truly overawed by the very grief in my own family - sad but true, and sadly, where we have been overwhelmed by sadness and grief, others see it as 'just life', so get on with it.

Our neighbours agree with me that the world is going crazy with all sorts of grief and pain - we are often overwhelmed with the news we hear - the horrible and ghastly things that are happening in our world - none of us is immune to anything that happens.

Grief is an emotion, a huge emotion in our human experience, and I guess we all suffer from grief in our own way as we go through life - heaps of people recorded in the Bible went through grief, and we still are.

Sadly, we all experience all sorts of grief - it is a human experience and is part of life, unfortunately. We lose all kinds of things - and of course, people,

BUT...the amazing part of grief is that we have our hope and trust in God alone, knowing that He is strong and willing to help us carry whatever burdens we may have.

In Matthew 11, God's message to us is that  "His yoke is easy and his burden is light"; in other words, he is strong enough and so willing to help us carry our burdens.

We can give all of our troubles to Him - our hurts and our disappointments - our bereavements and our solitude, and he is strong and willing enough to help us carry them.

If we ask God to help us through our troubles, He will give us, through the Holy Spirit, a special comforter. In John 14 and verse 16, he says: "I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate (helper) to assist you and be with you forever!"

Life can be so short - it wasn't all that long ago as I sat beside a dying man in a nursing home, he held my hand and he said to me, "Is God really there? - Can he see me where I am at the moment?'

It's so sad, isn't it? I always had the impression that this particular man knew God and had asked Him into His life to lead Him - I know He had a quiet time each day and read God's word through his bible, and yet here he was on death's bed and wanting to know if God was indeed real.

Praise God that when we give our lives to Him, He will come in and there He will stay.

You know we need faith, and that's what brings us to God in the first place - if we accept Christ and have him in our hearts like this chap did and ask him to lead us in life, then Christ does come in and will make His home in our hearts.

Praise you, Lord, that salvation does NOT depend on us - if it did, then it definitely could be lost and lost forever. BUT it doesn't depend on us at all!

We can all have doubts, but God's word, especially on the subject of ETERNAL LIFE, cannot be temporary - God won't ever EVER go back on His word - In Titus 1:2 it plainly says "GOD DOES NOT LIE."

In John 10, it says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

So how encouraging is this! God is with us if we truly believe in His word and put our whole faith and trust in Him!

Have you done that? Are you ready to give your life to Christ? Ask Him today!

God bless you this week.

startling gongs

 

What is a GONG?

This from Wikipedia

"Suspended gongs are played with hammers and are of two main types. The gong has been a Chinese instrument for millennia. Some gongs are loud enough to be heard from up to eight kilometres (five miles) away." 

Gongs were also used to summon the slaves from the fields.

Slaves years ago were apparently known as JIANMIN. Apparently, different dynasties used captives and criminals as their slaves.

It was also at that time, that is the Shang and Zhou dynasties,  peasants were constantly in servitude and weren't ever able to own their own land or even leave it without the permission of their 'owners'  - sad really!

Then there were the Qin and Tang Dynasties, when slavery, such as it was, expanded to not only using criminals and war captives but also all prisoners of war and whoever the chief in charge thought was needed to expand public works or to be spared execution to work the rest of their lives in hard labour.

Some people worked as domestics or on all sorts of large-scale public works. Slavery was a persistent and recurring issue.

Slavery was all around the world, even in Jesus' time. Slavery in Greece and Rome during this time was far in advance of what horrible things were happening in China at that time.

Slaves were considered property of their owners and must have faced really brutal conditions. Slavery in those days was really institutionalised and so virtually par for the course, as the saying goes, and everyone just accepted that fact. I can't imagine what some poor people were going through.

Jesus Himself must have seen what was happening all around him, and he was sure that His whole being was totally against slavery of any kind. Exodus 21:16 was so explicit against all kinds of slavery - reading that verse says it all - virtually anyone found selling people at all will be put to death - WOW, couldn't be more explicit.

But here we are in today's world, where slavery is still in existence - pretty horrible. People tricked into or even forced to work for no pay - kidnapped even - it's pretty devastating. 

Wow, even today, there are approximately 27 million people who are subject to slavery, forced labour, sex trade, and so it goes on and on. In the Bible, in Leviticus 25, it says that slaves should be treated as hired workers or temporary residents.

When we become Christians and we give our lives over to Christ, who paid with His life to save us from our sins, our lives are often changed dramatically, so dramatically that our entire life around us changes amazingly.

All women and men are created in God's image - we are ALL loved so intensely by God that slavery really has no place in our world at all. This condemns all who kidnap and sell persons from any race, anywhere, at any time.

In Genesis 1:27, God created us in His own image, which is itself an amazing and truly beautiful concept. It actually says in 1 Timothy that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, which is very encouraging.

God, in His love and mercy, created us to love and be loved in hugely various forms - his love is evident and with us in all sorts of situations which are available to us when we give our lives to Him. Unfortunately, there are lots of people in the world who refuse to know God at all.

Just recently, Sue and I were walking on the beach, and just on the promenade leading down to the sand. there is a memorial to a young bloke who was savagely knifed in the chest by one of his so-called acquaintances - he died instantly. 

They were apparently vaguely aware of each other, and it was late at night or quite early in the morning, and there was an argument, or what you could call a so-called indiscriminate argument.

Apparently, it wasn't what you would call a savage type of argument, but a guy pulled out a knife anyway and stabbed the young fellow, who died pretty much straight away.

These young people had no idea about God and what he actually did for them all those years ago. In today's world, there are a few people who truly believe in lots of ways that they are really important and, in fact, in God's eyes, they are, but here on earth, we should really be putting others ahead of ourselves.

I know I have had all sorts of trouble with that, so I really can't point the finger at anyone - But this young man really wasn't going to let another young man take the shine off his personality - so so sad, really.

The young guy who was killed so dastardly that early morning now has a tribute along the beach walkway put there by his mum and dad. As a parent myself, I can only imagine what they go through - I really can't wrap my head around that fact.

It wasn't that long ago in a nearby neighborhood that a young man approached a group of noisy young people wrecking garbage bins and things on the sidewalk, and the same thing happened - they pulled a knife and he ended up dead.

When you think of the slaves mentioned above, even today, and also of the families so bereft of their members, young or old, taken from them forcefully and horribly, hundreds of them worldwide, it really gives us a wake-up call!

Where do we go with this? Always makes me really wonder where it will all end.

Putting God first is extremely important for us when we give our lives over to Jesus. In the Bible, in Matthew 22 and verse 37, it says, "Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind." In other words, we have to be totally 100 percent given over to God

Nothing has to come before God - of course, loving your family is awesome, and we are so willing to give up everything for them - the same has to be said for God - he actually comes first in everything. Does that make it hard to live like that?

Of course not - putting God first means we strive constantly to give Him first place in everything we do.

So, where are you with God? Do you think of Him at all? - Is He some sort of mystic being that you are vaguely aware of?

Do we know God at all? Are we going to have to give an account of our lives to God?

Yes, we are!! Are you ready?

Our very salvation is gained by faith. In John 3:16, it says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Through faith in Christ and by fully trusting in Him, salvation is ours.

How are you? Ready to give your life to Christ? Jesus' death on the cross fully paid for your sins. Accept Him today and fully trust in Him. Doesn't mean that you will live the perfect life, but what it does mean is that God is there for you. Come to Him, always asking His forgiveness.

Have a great week, and hope to see you next time.