“Why do people love sunset pictures so much?”
That question has been on my mind for quite some time and I have even made a feeble effort to find out, but I did not get very far.
“When I see a sunset on Ahipara beach, to me it is the most majestic sight, and I am reminded that life is beautiful and we are life,” writes someone in our local paper today
The book for children called “My First Tell the Time Book 7AM – 12PM,” in our lounge caught my attention this morning.
7 o’clock is the time to wake up, 8 o’clock is the time for breakfast and so on.
In the Bible in the book called Hosea we read in chapter 10:12, “For it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
In 2 Corinthians 6:2 the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians,”I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the time of salvation.”
GOD’S WAY OF SALVATION
We are sinners and God is holy. Our sins have separated us from God. But God is also love. That’s why there is a way of salvation. There is a way back to God. The way back to God is through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Ecclesiastes 8:5 says, “Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.”
Can you tell the time?
Reading about the 23 people of nine nationalities who became New Zealand citizens not long ago, in our local paper, reminds me of the time when I became a CITIZEN OF HEAVEN. (The Northland Age, Tuesday, July 9, 2019)
The 23 people took the oath or affirmation of allegiance before the mayor at Te Ahu here in Kaitaia.
But what is now a Christian? A Christian is a man who has been translated from the KINGDOM OF DARKNESS into the KINGDOM OF LIGHT, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of glory.
The citizenship of a Christian is now in heaven.
We are reading about our Heavenly Citizenship in the Bible:
I surely remember the time when I became a citizen of Heaven, when I became a Christian, when the Lord translated me from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son.
I was still in my teens and is was in Germany.
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain
“Tick the verses as you go to keep record,” it says on page five in THE WORD FOR TODAY (August – September 2019), I picked up last Sunday. It is all about reading through the Bible in one year.
“You can do it!” I am reading at the top of a page almost at the end of one of my Bibles. The words are also meant to encourage me to read through the entire Bible in one year.
So far as I remember I had even a Bible reading plan with boxes to be ticked pinned to the wall, but I did not achieve anything, until the time came when I read the Bible from cover to cover like any other book and every word twice in one year, without ticking any verses (boxes).
“God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls, and coal into diamonds. USING TIME AND PRESSURE, HE’S WORKING ON YOU TOO!”
In the book called THE CROSS – God’s Way of Salvation, written by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I am not only reading right at the beginning about the centre and the heart of the message of the Apostles, but also about the imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ, his teaching (Sermon on the mount, ethical teaching) and his example.
I am especially interested in the imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because not long ago I bought the book called The imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis second-hand here at the Salvation Army store in Kaitaia for a Dollar and I thought it would be good to add the book to my small library. I have not read it yet. (The Penguin Classics)
The book reminds me also of the verse in the New Testament, where the Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians 11:1, “FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE, AS I FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST.”
But what is now the centre of the Christian message? What is the heart of the Christian message?
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out that the Christian message is not primarily the teaching, example and imitation of Christ, but the PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST, the death upon the cross of the Lord. And of course the meaning of it all.
“BALKEN IM EIGENEN AUGE? NIE GESEHEN!”