In Second Chronicles 20:12 Jehoshaphat is praying:

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”

Is that not also our prayer?

The New Zealand Herald, February 13, 2009:

“Aucklanders swelter as temperature hits highest level in  137 years.”

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 10:14

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me –

Do you know the shepherd?

Does the shepherd know you?

Psalm 23:1-6

The Lord is my shepherd,…………....

We are used to find the words hell and God in the Bible. (But let me say here straight away, that we don’t hear much about what the Bible teaches about hell from the pulpits).

That’s why I was surprised today to find the word “hell” at least twice on the front page of The New Zealand Herald and the word “God” at least once.

The headline: “HELL ON  EARTH.”

“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours.” – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

“All those  who have made it into the town will be fine. The others will be sheltering and working on their fire plans, God help them.” – Peter Mitchell, a resident of the town of Kinglake

The New Zealand Herald – Monday, February 9, 2009

Find out for yourselve what the Bible teaches on the subject of hell. Here is one verse: Mark 9:43

Nur was in der Ueberschrift geschrieben ist, habe ich behalten. Aber wie gross war meine Freude, als ich den ganzen Vers in einem Andachtsbuch von Wilhelm Busch fand. Hier ist er:

“Wenn jeder haett’ an seiner Stirn/ von Glas ein Fensterlein/ dahinter die Gedanken schwirr’n/ dass man koennt seh’n hinein:/ was gaeb’ das fuer ein wildes Laufen/ um matte Scheiben einzukaufen.”

Psalm 94:11

DER HERR WEISS DIE GEDANKEN DER MENSCHEN.

I am having a newspaper magazine in front of me. The article is all about happiness. Lots of headlines with the word happy and happiness. I think I have counted those two words 13 times.  – I have also read somewhere else about happiness. –

But at the end of the newspaper magazine article is  a picture, a male and a female holding hands and walking together under trees and about underneath the picture it says: “MAKE STRONG PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS YOUR PRIORITY.”  It seems to be all about relationships. That of course took really my attention. Somewhere else I read this,” And one of the the most important ingredients of a balanced life is having someone to love and love you.”

Apparently in the year 2000 50 books were published on Happiness. In the year 2008 4000 books were published on the topic. What an increase!

Are people getting desperate for STRONG RELATIONSHIPS?

Our prayer should be: Lord, make people desperate for a realationship with you!

Isaiah 46:4

“EVEN TO YOUR OLD AGE AND GRAY HAIRS I AM HE,

I AM HE

WHO WILL SUSTAIN YOU.

I HAVE MADE YOU

AND I WILL CARRY YOU;

I WILL SUSTAIN YOU

AND I WILL RESCUE YOU.”

I was sitting on the bench in front of the Warehouse drinking a bottle of water and talking to a really nice young man about the BIBLE and the LORD JESUS CHRIST. He listened with interest to what I was saying. I could see it on his friendly face.

And then it happened:

A book from my library came to my mind. It is only a slender volume, not very many pages. The title is “My pulpit is the world.” (translated) It is written by F. Meisinger* and it is a Personal Evangelism treasury. It says inside the book twentysecond impression 2002. Unfortunately I don’t know when it was first published. More than 100 000 copies of the book have been sold already.

My pulpit is also the WORLD. This time the bench in front of the Warehouse. I don’t even need to stand upright, I can even drink my water from my bottle  while talking as I did today on this very very hot day.

wd

*Friedrich Meisinger: MEINE KANZEL IST DIE WELT – KAWOHL – VERLAG