“Help create safer communities,” begins a letter and a pamphlet I received today.

It is an “Invitation to participate in the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey.”

The survey is being undertaken to be able to better understand 4 things, namely:

• how much crime occurs,
• how much crime is reported,
• who experiences crime and
• how people are affected by crime.

The aim of the whole undertaking is to improve services to reduce crime and create safer communities.

What do we read in “The Book of Books”, the Bible?

In Exodus chapter chapter 20 we find The Ten Commandments.

Here are three of the Commandments:

• “You shall not murder.”
• “You shall not commit adultery.”
• “You shall not steal.”

And the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) And the Lord Jesus Christ says also, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)

“Wir muessen das Evangelium wieder predigen. Wann machen wir das?” My translation: “We must preach the gospel again. When are we going to do that?” That’s what I heard the German chancellor Angela Merkel say some time ago.

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 everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

I like the request, “Help create safer communities.”

From the time I passed from darkness to light, from the time I had my second birthday, from the time when I began a new life in Germany at the age of 18, I endeavoured not to be ashamed of the Gospel as a missionary in Thailand for 13 years and in Kaikohe/New Zealand for almost 25 years.

Picture / Alan Collingwood

“Time to prepare your body for summer,” is the article in our local paper called.

Five steps are given how to go about it. “Hydration, inside and out, is important all year round, but especially over summer,” we are told in Step three. It is all about drinking enough water daily.

Reading about our body brings straight away our soul and our spirit to my mind.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (King James Version)

In the Bible we are reading about a hungry soul, a weary soul, a thirsty soul, a grieved soul and a loving soul.

Jeremiah 31:25; Psalm 42:2; Job 30:25; Song of Songs 1:7 (King James Version)

On the cross the Lord Jesus Christ died to redeem the soul of man. Hebrews 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who draw back back in perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Read also James 1:21 and Psalm 49:8. (King James Version)

I am all for preparing my body for summer and drinking enough water daily, but I think it is more important and always time to prepare my soul for eternity and drink enough water daily from the living water.

“Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein