“Forgetfulness leads to exile. While remembrance is the secret of redemption. – Baal Shem Tov

Yesterday, when I came back from my walk, I was thinking how innovative businessmen and businesswomen are when it comes to selling their products. And today coming back from town it hit me, that they are also not slow to grasp  every and any opportunity to advertise their merchandise. Money!

McDonalds has something new for us.  A Family Dinner Box from $19.90. The Family Dinner Box is available from 5PM – 11PM.

Mother’s Day is on the 9th of May this year.

Another opportunity to advertise….. gifts for Mother’s Day. There are not many shops in Kaitaia at the present time where you cannot buy a gift for your mother. It seems that the town is full of gifts for mother. I hope you have bought a gift by now. Have you?

What an opportunity to make money.

Have you heard the Maori saying:

“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata?”

Translated:

“What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!

I like that saying very much.

PEOPLE! PEOPLE! PEOPLE!

I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Am I missing opportunities to witness in Jerusalem – Kaitaia? Acts 1:8

In Romans 1:16 the apostle Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of  God for the salvation of…….”

In Acts 5:42 it says about the apostles, “…,they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Listen to what Paul says in First Corinthians 9:16: “….I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I I do not preach the gospel!”

And remember also the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ about “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” in Matthew 5:13-16. Very solemn words indeed!

“For every beauty there is an eye to see it.

For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.

For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.” –

Ivan Panin

“One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and censorious.” – James I. Packer

You can see

“Celebrate MUM

MOTHER’S DAY Sunday 9th May 2010″

posters hanging in the local PAPERplus shop here in town, where you can buy your stationery and your books.

Celebrate Mother’s Day? Painful feelings are welling up in the hearts of many people on Mother’s Day,  and the thought of celebrating is very far from them.

Farmers is another big shop here in  Kaitaia. The Farmers catalogue at the present time is very big and has many pages. The front cover has a beautiful picture, a mother and a little girl. Both have beautiful white teeth. Underneath the picture you can read, “A beautiful Mother’s Day starts with a gift from Farmers.”

I don’t think there are many people who don’t know by now that Mother’s Day is on the 9th of May this year. When I was walking through the big Farmers shop today,– I think it is a shortcut from our place into town– and when I noticed all the Mother’s Day posters hanging from the ceiling,  I recalled the things I read not long ago in a book written by a lady who is a counsellor and who is also involved in pastoral ministry. She is writing about bad relationship between mothers and daughters.

On the big and small posters it says, “Spoil her” –  “Treat her” – “Pamper her” – “Surprise her” – “Delight her.”

Surprise your mother with a gift from Farmers!

Maybe one or two weeks ago I read this in the paper, “The world and all things in it are treasures; but the most treasured of all is your mother.”

There is nobody who has not had a mother. Do you remember your mother? I remember my mother. She was a praying mother and she read her Bible. She also loved to read her hymn book.

But counsellors and people with pastoral ministry meet again and again with people, especially mothers and daughters, who need to sort out their relationships first before they can really celebrate Mother’s Day.

Some mothers reject their daughters. The daughters are carrying deep wounds and pain from a mother’s rejection. Sometimes there is no hope of reconciliation.

That is the real world we are living in.

But there is not only warfare between mothers and daughters and warfare between parents and children. There seems to be warfare everywhere.

Why is that? Where is peace?

Peace comes from the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone.

Billy Graham says, “We war with one another because of sin, which is a declared state of war against God. Only Christ can cancel sin and create a peace treaty with God and then between men.”

“PRAISE is the dress of saints in  Heaven; it is meet that they should fit it on below.”

C.H. Spurgeon

“Faith begins where reason ends! When we have reached the limit of reason and understanding it is then we can rise up on the wings of faith and find that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” – M. R. De Haan