“It’s all about me,” was written on the front and the back of the camper van I saw this morning in town, when paying one of my bills at the Post Office. Reading that put a smile on my face and I am wondering sometimes what people think when they see me walking along and grinning to myself.

“It’s all about me.” What do you make of it? Is it or is it not?

But please keep in mind that “it’s all about me.”

All of us have a mother, but it is not about my mother. All of us have a father, but it is not about my father. Some of us have a brother, but it is not about my brother. Some of us have a sister, but it is not about my sister.

About what is it then? It’s all about me.”

I am wondering if you remember the Negro spiritual that goes like this:

“It’s not my mother nor my father nor my brother nor my sister, but it’s me, Oh, Lord, standin’ in the need of prayer.”

“WORRYING does not take away tomorrow’s TROUBLES, it takes away today’s PEACE.”

“EVEN IN YOUR DARKEST DAYS THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE.”

“I’ve never failed at anything in my life. I was simply given another opportunity to get it right. – Winston Churchill

“A task without a vision makes for drudgery – head down, feet caught in the mud.” – J. I. Packer

A writing course at Far North REAP in Kaitaia began last Tuesday.

Time: 10 am – 12.30 pm.

The tutor: Awardwinning Far North author Mr Mark Chamberlain.

The duration: Seven weeks, every Tuesday.

REAP is short for:

Rural Education Activities Programme.

“Make meaningful connections, listen more …”, is the first of the five strategies suggested by researchers that will help us not to let winter get us down.

The second mentioned is, “Give of your time, and do something nice for a friend or a stranger.” (The Northland Age, Tuesday, May 21, 2019)

We are encouraged to find new ways to connect at home.

We are encouraged to find new ways to connect at work.

We are encouraged to find new ways to connect at school.

We are encouraged to find new ways to connect in our community.

Let me add one more connection.

This connection is not only meaningful, but essential. That is the connection with our creator and in order to connect with God we don’t need to find new ways, we find the way in the Bible. Listen to what we read in the Bible and get connected to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Why? Because our connection was interrupted in the Garden of Eden.

J. I. Packer says: “While we must always remember that it is our responsibility to proclaim salvation, we must never forget that it is God who saves.”

We are reading in the following Bible verses “that it is God who saves.”

Please notice in Matthew 16:17 that the Father in heaven reveals, in Acts 16:14 that the Lord is opening the heart of Lydia, in Acts 13:48 that those believed who were appointed for eternal life, and in Matthew 15:13 that the heavenly Father plants the plants.

• Matthew 16:17: “Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.'”
• Acts 16:14: “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to to respond to Paul’s message.”
• Acts 13:48: “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
• Matthew 15:13: “He replied, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.'”

Let us remember all this, when we are praying for people.