“‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!'”

The Apple Outside

“‘You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.'”

The Same Apple Inside

“‘In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.'” – Matthew 23:27,28

Reading a good number of Early Childhood Learning Centres advertisements (newborn2five, march 2013), I noticed the two words RELATIONSHIP and FUTURE occuring again and again.

One Early Childhood Learning Centre advertises an “environment where children form trusting relationships.” I am reading also in some ads that children are taught to “relate positively to others.” “Developing meaningful relationships” is also taught.

There is no doubt that early Childhood Learning Centres are aware of the importance of relationships.

(But let us never forget that there is one relationship, which is of uttermost importance, and that is the relationship with our creator.)

“Helping Build Children’s Futures” advertises EDUCARE NORTH. Another ad says, “Little steps towards great futures!”

Early Childhood Learning Centres are also aware of the importance of children’s futures.

What is now the best way to help a child to build a future?

The best way to help children build big futures is to teach them that they can have a living relationship with their creator.

“Give your child a great start,” says the KINDERGARTEN ad in the above mentioned publication. The greatest start you can give your child is to tell them about the LOVE OF GOD! 

ONCE

“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” – First Peter 2:10

NOW

“Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?'” – Numbers 22:28

DONKEY

“But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey-a beast without speech-who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” – Second Peter 2:16

Read the whole story of Balaam’s Donkey in Numbers 22:21-41!

The blackbird I heard singing this morning is still on my mind.

It was raining, but the bird was obviously enjoying it, sitting on the lawn feeding and singing.

I must say, that I really enjoyed listening to the thrush.

What a reminder, to praise our creator.

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm in the Bible, and have you ever counted the word PRAISE in the Psalm? It is actually only a short Psalm. In the New International Version I counted the word PRAISE thirteen times. Please check, if I am correct!

In verse six we read, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.”

I have heard this morning that the blackbird has breath. The blackbird did not need any encouragtement, to praise the creator. I should not need any encouragement either.

To the importance of relationships I was pointed again, when I read an article in one of our local papers.

The article is about the sacking of a College principal, and the word relationships is mentioned again and again.

The reader is told about irretrievable broken down key relationships, inabily to build wholesome relationships with people and inability to build enduring relationships.

There is one relationship, which is of uttermost importance, and that is our relationship with the living God.

It is our key relationship and it is also broken down, but not irretrievable.

The Lord Jesus Christ bridged the gap between God  and us, so that we can have a wholesome and enduring relationship with God.

All we must do to enter into this relationship is to believe! Please enter into this relationship, it changes your life.

Our trip to the beach today ended at CABLE BAY:

CABLE BAY

CABLE BAY

CABLE BAY

On the way back we stopped at TAIPA BEACH:

TAIPA BEACH

TAIPA BEACH

TAIPA BEACH

TAIPA BEACH

Some time ago I wrote a story for a Reader’s Digest competition. The story had to have exactly one hundred words.

Here is the story. It has exactly one hundred words, the computer tells me, but it is not exactly as it was sent off to Reader’s Digest, but very close. Unfortunately I did not keep a copy.

“They have found him dead in THE VALLEY!”

It was one day before Christmas, when the sad news spread like wildfire through the little remote village in the mountains of Switzerland.

Sepp was one of the best mountain climbers in the village, and was missing for quite some time. Now everybody asked the question, “What happened?”

Christmas Day Ida rushed into her neighbor’s house, where she found her gossiping with Lotte and drinking tea with the latest news, “They found a paper in one of Sepp’s pockets on which was written, “The tongue has the power of life and death.”