“He has a right to criticise, who has a heart to help.” – Abraham Lincoln

“EVERY HEART WITHOUT JESUS CHRIST IS A MISSION FIELD; EVERY HEART WITH JESUS SCHOULD BE A MISSIONARY.” – Bud Schaeffer

UNITED MAORI MISSION

75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

DATE: SATURDAY, 5TH NOVEMBER 2011

Very big decisions follow me around.

I have to face life. I have to face death. I have to face judgment. You also have to face life, death and judgment.

I don’t know how you are going to do that. I don’t think we can face life, death and judgment without the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why I have decided to follow the LORD Jesus Christ.

I don’t know if you are you familiar with the hymn “I have decided to follow Jesus,……..” The words of the hymn are by Anon.

In John 8:12 the Lord Jesus Christ says: “‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I can face life, because I can say with the hymn writer “Because He lives I can face tomorrow;…” The hymn is written by Gloria and Bill Gaither. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive.

In Hebrews 9:27 we read, “It is appointed unto men once to die.”

I can face death because I can say with the apostle Paul, “‘Where, O death is your victory? Where , O death is your sting?'” First Corinthians 15:55. We read also in First Corinthians 15:54: “‘Death has been swollowed up in victory.'”

In Hebrews 9:27 it says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

I can face judgment because I can say with the apostle Paul, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,…” Romans 8:1

The hymn “I have decided to follow Jesus,…” has four verses. In verse four the question “Will you decide now to follow Jesus?” is asked three times!

“….the guilty burden……..”

“I remember as  if  it were but yesterday…. the rolling away from my heart of the guilty burden… and the going forth to serve my God and my generation from that hour.” – William Booth

(Salvation Army Founder)

CHANGE!

Things don’t seem to be good at all!

Why do I say that? Because people are crying out for change!

From the main street here in Kaitaia, in the north of New Zealand, you can see the big Rotary Poster saying:  “People like you and me  helping to change the world.” “Want to play a part?”  Not long ago I read in one of our local papers that the Rotary Club of  Kerikeri  bought 248 Usborne Illustrated Dictionaries to hand out as gifts to pupils to encourage literacy in the home.

Posters in the local Warehouse encouraging us to “Buy a pen and change a life.” “Support Youthline  and help change the lives of young people in New Zealand.” –  I bought one of the pens.

I read also about change on a poster in the local library some days ago. But when I went to the library today the poster was gone and I remember only vagely what it said. It seems to me that we have to be a ‘now person’ in order not to miss out on things.

Do you know what the Bible, the Word of the Living God says in Malachi 3:6?

“I the LORD do not change;…”

Is it not good to know a God who does not change?

At the beginning you find the question: “Want to play a part?”

Of course I want to be a part of changing the world. Of course I want to be a part of changing the lives of young New Zealanders. There is no doubt about that!

How do we change the world? How are the lives of people changed?

In Matthew 18:3 the LORD Jesus Christ says,

“‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'” The LORD says also to Nicodems in John 3:5 “‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.'”

Things are not good!

Let us be obedient to the LORD and be his witnesses where we are!

“Second – hand books are wild books,

homeless books;

they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather

and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.” –

Virginia Woolf

Some of my best books are from second – hand shops and I bought them very cheap!