Another beautiful flower

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” – Romans 4:25

Home Defence

“Transform your home with total protection technology,” I am told.

What an encouragement, to defend the building, to protect the dwelling, I am living in. Are you looking after the home you are dwelling in? I am and I know also that it is quite costly to do so.

But the home is not only the building, the home is the people who live in the house.

Can I encourage you to defend your family, can I encourage you to protect the people who live in your dwelling. Families need protection from many things.

Drinking is a problem.

Smoking is a problem.

Drugs are a problem.

Pornography is a problem.

I don’t need to elaborate on all those problems, because you find the details in the newspapers and you hear about them over the radio and see them on TV.

I remember a saying and it goes like this:

Only those people who have learned to be obedient themselves, can demand obedience from others.

That is a good saying for parents to remember. I translated it from German to my best knowledge.

I am all for transforming my home, the building, with total protection technology, but I know that it is more important to protect and to defend the people who live in the dwelling.

What is the motto of the Salvation Army?

“CARING FOR PEOPLE

TRANSFORMING LIVES

REFORMING SOCIETY”

At the Beach

“Find the right words,” is written on the front cover of the booklet that tells me about the Auckland Writers Festival (13-17 May 2015, Aotea Centre).

FIND THE RIGHT WORDS FOR YOURSELF

It took me a long time to find the right words for myself. Although the Bible was in our house and although my mother prayed, I was looking for the right words for myself where I would never find them.

I remember reading books by Immanuel Kant. But I did not really understand what I was reading. I remember also reading literature given to me by people who go from house to house. But that did not work either.

But in my late teens something happened to me and the Bible became alive for me and was no longer like any other book on the bookshelf.

The right words for me are in the Bible. In Matthew 11:28 the Lord Jesus Christ says, ‘” COME TO ME, ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND HEAVY BURDENED, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.'”

FIND THE RIGHT WORDS FOR OTHERS

In the Bible we are also finding the right words for others.

Our neighbours have questions of life. Our neighbours have questions of death. Men want to know where to turn to in the hour of tragedy. The Bible is supreme. Why is that so? The Bible answers to the question of death. The Bible answers to the question of life. Where do we turn to in the hour of tragedy? The Bible is the one book we turn to in the hour of death.

Here are two promises we find in the Bible:

First John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

First Corinthians 3:11 “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Why is it that we “find the right words” in the Bible?

In Matthew 24:35 the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

“A NIGHT OF HOPE”

We cannot choose the country of our birth.

I am asking myself, “Do we have free will?”