“Have fun and be safe with fireworks this year,” I am reading on one side of the flyer, I picked up today at the Warehouse in Kaitaia. On the other side it says: “When lighting fireworks, stay safe!”

“During the Guy Fawkes period we will see more unnecessary fires and injuries. Please take care when letting off fireworks this year.”

Nine safety tips are given to follow. I am especially interested in safety tip number one:

“READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ON FIREWORKS BEFORE USING THEM.”

There are instructions on fireworks. We must read them. We must follow them. We must read and follow the instructions before we use the fireworks.

Just as we need instructions for everything, including fireworks, we need especially instructions for our LIFE and the earlier, the better. Where do we find the instructions for our life? We find the instructions for our life in the BIBLE, the Word of the Living God. We must read the instructions in the Bible. We must follow the instructions in the  Bible. The earlier we learn to do that the better.

In Deuteronomy 6:6,7, the Bible speaks about the commandments and says: “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your CHILDREN.

Read also Deuteronomy 4:9

I found this GOLDEN NUGGET today in the paper on the last page: “God’s Word: open for all”

“ADAM DISOBEYED GOD AND CAUSED MANY OTHERS TO BE SINNERS.

BUT JESUS OBEYED HIM AND WILL MAKE MANY PEOPLE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD.”

Romans 5:19

Is that not the GOSPEL in a nutshell?

I did not really expect to see the picture in the local paper, because Kerikeri is not exactly the Far North. But it was. Someone saw it in the paper and told me about it.

“THIS IS OUR PLACE

Connection: The intermingling of cultures, as interpreted in Chris Booth’s Kerikeri scuplture Te Whiringa Manoko. Photo: Werner Dekarski. (Readers are invited to submit photos depicting the Far North’s special qualities. Send to editor@northlandage.co.nz or PO Box 45 Kaitaia.”

“When guests stay too  long,  treat them like the rest of the family. If they don’t leave then, they never will.” –  Martin Ragaway, American screenwriter

“George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) on being asked why he was a vegetarian:

‘Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call me to account for eating decently? If a battened on the scorched corpses of animals, you might well ask me why I did that.'” – Vegetarian Living Vol. 62 No.3

“Over a recent Christmas , New Zealanders bought goods and services worth over $20 billion

on their credit cards and paid a mind – boggling $540 million of interest  at an average interest rate of around 18%” – NZ Baptist (magazine) October 2010, page 5