“The real-life epics of men and women whose password was courage, and who gambled everything for freedom – or death,” is written on the front cover of the book I picked up at the market yesterday. It is a Reader’s Digest book called TRUE STORIES OF GREAT ESCAPE. 

In the Bible we are reading about the COURAGE of the following people:

1.  ASA – Second Chronicles 15:8

Asa, the king of Judah, took courage to do a number of things:

a. The removal of idols.

b. The repairing of the altar of the Lord.

c. The assembling of the people.

2. EZRA – Ezra 7:28

Ezra took courage and gathered the leaders from Israel in Babylon, Jewish exiles, to go up with him to Jerusalem. He was a priest and a scribe and king Artaxerxes authorized him to do so.

3. DAVID – Second Samuel 7:27 and First Chronicles 17:25

David has found courage to offer a prayer.

He was a king and a psalmist. David killed Goliath.

4. PETER AND JOHN – Acts 4:13

Here we are reading about the courage of Peter and John. They had the courage to testify in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read the beginning of Acts chapter four, where you also find that Peter and John spent one night in prison. They were both apostles.

I pray that my password is also COURAGE, and that I will have the courage especially to pray and to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

“He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;

he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.

They grope in darkness with no light;

he makes them stagger like drunkards.” – Job 12:24,25

“HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS,” belongs to the “Home Sweet Home Collection” and was bought yesterday at The Warehouse.

“Home is where the heart is.”

 I was born in Germany and lived there until I was twentysix. I went to school in the north of Germany and worked in the Ruhr District and travelled not only in Germany but also in a number of European countries.

“Home is where the heart is”

For the next thirteen years I worked as a missionary in Thailand. Our Missionary Society worked in three provinces, in the northwest.

At the end of 1979 I moved from Thailand to the north of New Zealand, and I am still here in Aotearoa, as the land is also called. I have just figured out that I am almost thirtyfive years in New Zealand.

Suppose you would ask me now the question, “WHERE IS YOUR HOME?” What do you think what my answer would be?

Here is my answer:

“My home is not Germany, my home is not Thailand, my home is not New Zealand, because my heart is in Heaven.”

I like the hymn, “This is not my home, I’m just a-passing through,” by an anonymous author, where it says in the chorus, “If Heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do?”

Home is where the heart is.”

Sunflower

“…, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6

COFFEE BREAK

“Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.” – Earl Wilson

AT THE BEACH

‘Where can I go from your Spirit?” and “Where can I flee from your presence?” are two questions asked by David in Psalm 139. (We read about David in the Bible.)

Four possibilities are coming to his mind:

1. THE HEAVENS

The LORD is in the heavens.

2. THE DEPTHS

The LORD is in the depths.

3. THE FAR SIDE OF THE SEA

The LORD is on the far side of the sea.

4.THE DARKNESS WILL HIDE ME

Darkness is like light to the LORD.

In another Psalm, Psalm 32:7, he gives himself the most beautiful answer.

Here it is:

“You are my hiding place;

you will protect me from trouble and

surround me with songs of delivery.”