“Fishing is one of New Zealand’s most popular outdoor activities,” begins the Ministry of Primary Industry (MPI) pamphlet.

I have done recreational fishing in Germany and in Opononi in New Zealand when our kids were little.

Recreational fishing from the Pukenui wharf is popular and I watched there people fishing today.

Fishing from the Wharf in Pukenui

That actually reminded me again of my kind of fishing and I began to talk to someone who came along with a little dog pulling some kind of large ring. The dog pulled the ring on the ground in order not to get lost. I ended up telling the owner of the dog about what the Lord Jesus Christ had done in my life and is still doing in my life.

Later on also in Pukenui I talked to two more friends who know the Lord Jesus Christ. It is encouraging and it is a joy to talk to our friends who know the Lord, but the greatest joy enters our hearts when we witness to people we meet anywhere. Please read what it says in Acts 1:8.

 In Matthew 4:19 (Mark 1:17) we read:

“‘COME, FOLLOW ME,’ JESUS SAID, ‘AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN.'”

At the Beach

Should I be surprised or should I not be surprised?

That is the question, I am asking myself today and I want to tell you why I am asking that question.

Today is Sunday, January 18, 2015.

Let us remember that, because it is important.

Today when entering The Warehouse  here in Kaitaia, I saw a table with a beautiful table cloth on it and the table was decorated with flashing Christmas lights. The table was full of big posters telling me about The Warehouse Christmas Club.

From the table I picked up also a card which tells me the seven things I need to know in order to join The Warehouse Christmas Club. “Make saving for Christmas easy with The Warehouse Christmas Club” is written at the top of the card. Direct Debit forms are also available to make top-ups easier.

We have only one Christmas a year and the next Christmas is almost one year away, but I am not surprised about the table at the entrance to The Warehouse.

But I am surprised how ill prepared we are for “the day of death.”

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:8:

“No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no man has power over the day of his death.”

We know when we have Christmas again, but we do not know the day of our death.

“Where are you going to spend eternity?” is the title of a tract you find on our Coffee table.

GLORIFICATION

“Glorification means full and entire deliverance from sin and evil in all their effects and in every respect – body, soul, and spirit.”

________________________________________

Source: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, ROMANS, The Final Perseverance of the Saints, page two

To win a copy of Extreme Food, tell us the strangest thing you have ever eaten.

The strangest thing I have ever eaten was probably in Thailand.

And I am not the only one I have been told.

I am from Germany, but there was another missionary from America who helped himself generously to the bread spread.

I must have been warned to use the  spread sparingly, but he thought it was a chocolate spread and piled it on his sandwich.

No, I never found Thai food strange, I rather enjoyed it, but Marmite (a yeast and vegetable extract), which was brought from Britain into Thailand.

THE CROSS

“Children

John 1:13

Intr.:

born

1.  not of natural descent,

2.  nor of human decision

3.  or a husband’s will,

End:

but born of God.”

“THERE IS NOTHING MORE CHARACTERISTIC OF SINFUL MAN THAN RESTLESSNESS.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“THE TROUBLED SEA”

“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” – Isaiah 57:20

“STILL RESTLESS,” I saw written on the front of a campervan some time ago.” 

Reading is what I love. But whenever the author of a book is quoting hymns or lines of hymns, you can see them before you get to them, skipping comes to my mind and I don’t read the hymns.

“‘Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismay’d!

I, I am your God, and will give you aid.'”

Spurgeon quotes those two lines in his book MORNING AND EVENING Daily Readings (MORNING, January 16).

The text he is expounding on that day is from Isaiah and we find it in Isaiah 41:14: “I myself will help you, declares the LORD.”

Skipping came to my mind when I read the two lines, but those two lines are at the end of the page and I did not read them, but only glancing at the words was enough to make me pay attention.

What do I fear today? Is there something I am afraid of? Or are there even several things I am afraid of? What about making those phone calls and finding out how things are? And don’t forget to make that appointment. The sooner the better. Is that not our story?

It is so easy to get depressed and discouraged. Are you dismayed today? God is our heavenly Father and does not want us to fear. We are his children and he is with us.

In the second line it says twice “I”. Let us look to him and believe what he says. He will give us support. We want to remember that he is our foundation (First Corinthians 3:11). Let us encourage each other on our way.

And I know also that all that is easier said than done.

I am wondering now if I have learned to pay attention to the quoted hymns in the books I read. The author knows why he is putting the lines there.