AUCKLAND: Hunua Falls
What comes to your mind?
Christmas 2016 at Hunua Falls I saw a lifebuoy.
Seeing that lifebuoy a hymn came to my mind which I found eventually online. The name of the hymn is: “THROW OUT THE LIFE LINE.”
AUCKLAND: Hunua Falls
NOT FAR FROM AUCKLAND: Sheep
What comes to your mind?
Twice I have been lately on the bus from KAITAIA to AUCKLAND. You should hear the interesting stories the drivers of the buses tell about their passengers. I do not want to go into details, but I can now better understand why we read in the Bible about sheep.
Pleased read in the Gospel of John chapter ten!
Flowers at the roadside
“EARTH LAUGHS IN FLOWER.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Follow John’s tips for a safe, stressfree journey,” is the caption of the image and the title of the article is “Sound road safety rules to live by.” (Northern News, December 21, 2016) John is the chairman of Roadsafe Northland.
“Follow John’s tips for a safe, stressfree journey,” reminds me that our whole life is a journey. And God has given us rules for our journey to live by. We find God’s rules for us to live by in the Bible. They are called The Ten Commandments.
Memorizing Bible verses and especially The Ten Commandments
You find The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17. And The Greatest Commandment we find in Matthew 22:37-40.
In the same paper I am not only reading about “tips for a safe, stressfree journey” on the road, but also about “Top tips for summer water safety.”
Here are four road safety rules: “Increase your distance, the price of speeding, don’t drive when tired,” and “watch out for others.”
Let us always keep our eyes on God’s rules to live by and not neglect other safety rules.
“When you’re safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.” – Thornton Wilder, American writer
Auckland Airport
“STRESS IS CAUSED BY BEING ‘HERE’ BUT WANTING TO BE ‘THERE’.” – Eckhardt Tolle
“I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
When I read today what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about happiness, it came to my mind again what I saw yesterday on the main street here in Kaitaia and what I was actually going to forget.
Happiness
The street sign said, “You can’t buy happiness ….. but you can buy REAL ESTATE, & that’s kind of the same thing!”
In Matthew 5:4 we read in The Amplified Bible:
“Blessed and enviably happy, [with a happiness produced by experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!”
And his is what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about happiness in connection with this verse, “But the gospel says,’Happy are they that mourn.’ Indeed, they are the only ones who are happy! [see also Luke 6] ….”
The Lord Jesus Christ preached the gospel, the good news.
The words of the Lord Jesus Christ were good news. Why were they good news? They were good news because of what they offered.
They offered …
a. FREEDOM.
Second Corinthians 3:17 “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”
B. HOPE.
Colossians 1:27 “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” All who believe in God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, have Him live in their hearts. That means also the Gentiles.
“GOOD NEWS”
C. PEACE OF HEART.
Ephesians 2:14 “For he himself is our peace, …” People build walls between themselves. People do not have real unity with those who are not like them. But the Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed the barrier.
Because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
D. ETERNAL LIFE WITH GOD.
First John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” I do not hope that I will receive eternal life, I know that I have it. What about you?
What is the gospel, the good news?
The gospel is that the kingdom of heaven has come. The gospel is that God is with us. The gospel is that God cares for us.