Isaiah 66:2

“This is the one I esteem:

1. he who is humble

2. and contrite in spirit

3. and trembles at my Word.”

In John 21:16 the Lord is asking Peter, “Do you truly love me?” And here is Peter’s answer,”Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Now the Lord is giving Peter a job to do;  Peter is receiving some instructions. Here they are, “TAKE CARE OF MY SHEEP.”

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:6

At the present time the Lord is blessing me through the reading of sermons by the German pastor W. Busch.  I have mentioned this servant of the Lord several times already. He says also that the question “Do you truly love me?” is very difficult to answer. What is your answer? What is my answer?

I struggled to find an answer to that question some time ago. I asked myself, “Can I really answer from the bottom of my heart with Peter, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

In his sermon pastor Busch says that the question: “Do you truly love me?” is indeed very difficult to answer. That’s, when the Lord asked him urgently that question, he answered like this, “I realise now, that it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is, to have a burning heart for the Saviour. But my heart is dead, cold and burned out and tired. What shall I do?”

What is the answer?

He answers the question with a true little story:

In the 18th century there lived in the German town of  Wuppertal a man called Peter Diederichs, a seller of leather. That man knew a lot about pastoral care.

One day a young man came to him and said,  “When Jesus asks me: Do you love me? I don’t really want to tell him that my heart is cold.” Peter Diederichs answered, ” Friend, turn the question around, ask the Saviour:  Do you love me?”

For a moment it was very quiet. But all of a sudden the face of the young man lit up with joy. He realised the  love of the Saviour for him.  And his heart became warm. The love in the Saviours heart ignited the love in his heart.

This has helped me a lot. I hope it helps you too!

end

Psalm 119:105

“YOUR WORD:

1. Is a lamp to my feet and

2. A light for my path.”

Second Corinthians 1:20

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “YES” in Christ. And so through him the “AMEN” is spoken  by us to the glory of God.”

Second Peter 3:4

Second Peter 3:9

Second Peter 3:13

Isaiah 53:6

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

I looked up the word “container” in The Collins Dictionary and this is what it says:  “a large cargo-carrying standard-sized container that can be loaded from one mode of transport to another.”

You probably know by now  that we are living in Kaitaia, in the far north of New Zealand. The other day I walked along the bypass of the town towards the main shopping area and please believe me. On the big truck that passed me I saw a container. On the container was written in big letters: “HAMBURG-SUED”

What a greeting from my home, Germany. Hamburg is a big city in  Germany, as you well know. And Germany is very far away from here, in fact very very far! – About 18 029 km!!

Now the fact is that I am not thinking very much about my earthly home Germany. But I was straight away reminded again of my heavenly home. I am thinking very much about my home in heaven.

This morning I picked up the local paper, the NORTHERN NEWS,  and there I read the word heaven twice. On one page “GRANITE HEAVEN” was advertised in big letters. They are “Specialising in Granite and Composite Stone Surfaces.” On another page was a picture of the “GRANITE HEAVEN” people and an article. “No job is too hard” for them.

That shows actually that people are thinking of heaven as something special, of something beautiful.

And the REAL heaven is really something beautiful. The followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are READING GREETINGS FROM HOME IN THE BIBLE, the Word of the Living God and singing about heaven in  hymns.

There are many songs about our heavenly home. Some are better known than others. I found this one in  The Song Book of the Salvation Army.

The song is by Ada Garnett and the chorus goes like this:

“My home is in Heaven, there is no parting there,

All will be happy, glorious, bright and fair;

There’ll be no sorrow, there will be no tears,

In that bright home far away.”

Just now the well known verses from the beginning of John chapter 14 are coming to my mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. Read John 14:1-4. Are those words not read at funerals?

I want to leave you with this question: ARE WE GOING TO RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER IN HEAVEN? What do you think? What does the BIB LE say?

The NORTHERN NEWS is one of the papers, which is delivered FREE into our home. I picked the paper up today and was immediately interested in the ad on page two.

“EVERY RELATIONSHIP ENDS  SOME TIME”  I read there. The letters are big. Underneath it says: ” For all of us it’s an unfortunate fact of life that every marriage or relationship comes to an end. While some will go separate ways, most will end with death of one partner.”

I am glad, that I have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am glad, that my relationhip with the Lord REALLY starts when I die, and that my relationship with the Lord is without END!

Praise the LORD!

HAPPINESS – FREEDOM – PEACE OF MIND

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life – happiness, freedom, and peace of mind –  are always attained by giving them to someone else.” – Peyton Conway March

HAPPINESS:

Please read Matthew 5:3-12 in THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE.

Verse 6: “Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous [that is, in that state in which the born – again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied!”

FREEDOM:

John 8:32,36 ; Isaiah 61:1 ; Romans 8:2,21 ; Second Corinthians 3:17

Second Corinthians 3:17

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom.”

PEACE OF MIND:

Philippians 4:7 ; Isaiah 26:3

Philippians 4:7

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Only today I noticed, that Peace of Mind must have been also very important for my father in law.

My father in law was a sign writer and he liked to write Bible verses in fancy writing and frame them. Philippians 4:6,7 is hanging on the wall in  our bedroom and Isaiah 26:3 is in Auckland. On one of my visits to the capital I took a picture of Isaiah 26:3. Here it is: