Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Does God Have A Sense Of Humour?


Does God have a sense of humour?
You’d better believe it….and He’s great with traffic !

We lived in a unit in a high-rise building in the heart of the city of Liverpool, Australia.
I worked at the Defence dept outside the city and across the river.
To access the four lane highway that crossed the city and the river you had to patiently wait in a line of vehicles until each one was able to slip in between vehicles on your right across two lanes and then hope a kind soul on your left would allow you to join the traffic flow ahead.
It’s very difficult to describe without a drawing.since we Aussies drive on the opposite side of the road to you.
Each morning as I queued up to make a right turn onto the far side of the highway I would be praying that some kind soul would take pity on me and let me in as soon as a gap showed up on my right.

This particular morning I was running late, after a night up with sick children, so I begged God as I drove to the junction “PLEASE, GOD MAKE SOMEONE LET ME IN TODAY”.
I reached the junction. THERE WAS NOT A CAR IN SIGHT ! I looked to the right and then to the left in amazement. The highway was completely deserted. I pulled into the highway , laughing and crying at the same time, and I am sure I could hear the Lord laughing too! I drove the two kilometres to work absolutely alone.

When the local newspaper came out the next day it bore the headlines ‘MYSTERY ELECTRICAL FAILURE STOPPED TRAFFIC THROUGHOUT THE CITY !!’

That’s my Lord! Isn’t He absolutely awesome?

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A Message From God.

* Place your own name where it says ‘child’.

Let me just hold you today, child
You are always rushing around
You need to stop, rest, and listen
Your feet hardly touch the ground.

I want to give rest to your soul, child
To whisper my blessings to you
I gave up My life FOR you, my child,
Now I want to give life TO you.

I’m always as close as your breathing
I hear every whispered plea.
You say you are not a believer
Yet I’ve heard you cry, “Oh God, help me!”

So today, my arms are around you
Just relax for a moment or two
And look in My Word for some guidance
As I whisper, dear one, I love you.

W.B

Monday, October 27, 2008

No Other Love.

No other love would plan for my creation
Would know my name and count up all my days
No other love would sacrifice His Son for me
And let Him take the Cross, my soul to save.

No other love could take my life and raise it
From the destruction I was heading for.
Waiting for me to turn and then head homeward
And run to meet me, arms outstretched in love.

No other love would take my hand and hold me
Or listen for my cry when trouble’s near
Be near me when temptations are beguiling,
Or when sorrow’s pain has grown to bring me fear.

No other love but mine, all I can offer.
It’s all I have to give, yet not enough.
My Lord, my Saviour, Friend and my Provider
I worship You, and yield all to Your Love.

Chorus.
Your Love, Your Life, Your Cross, my gain
My all too poor a gift
I’ll honour You with all my life
And in Your Love remain.

W.B. Aug 2008.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Lord Of My Life.


Lord of my life be near to me
I need Your presence. Stay with me.
Hold Thou my hand, I tremble so
At the long way I have to go.

Lord of my life, keep holding me
I only wish Your child to be
I cannot stand without Your hand
This road to Heaven’s too far a land.

Lord of my life please lead me on
Until I reach that home beyond
This earthly place with all it’s strife
And trouble that attends my life.

Lord of my life, Yes Lord, You are
I praise You Lord for what You are
My Saviour, Counsellor, my Friend
Your love for me will never end.

Lord of my life, I love You so
You hold me every step I go
What can I give You but my praise?
I’ll love you till the end of days.





W.B. Oct ‘08

Lord You Are My Life.

Where are You Lord? Are You really there? I can’t FEEL You here.
Father I need to FEEL Your presence. I feel so alone today.

Is this Your doing Lord? Are You removing my props?
Or are You showing me that I mustn’t put any stock in feelings.
They are fickle aren’t they, Lord?
Satan can play with my feelings too.
I know that, but feelings are the building blocks of my perceptions and my perceptions are that I am so alone.

I need You (that’s a fact, not a perception).

I want to sink right up to my neck in an awareness of Your presence , a sensation of Your love.
There I go again concentrating on feelings instead of facts.

The facts are these:- You love me to bits
You are here beside me and within me.
You will never leave me or abandon me
You are closer than a brother.
You are holding me in the palm of Your hand

Hold me tight Lord, I still need to FEEL it! I am so very very human.
Have mercy on me oh Lord of my life, Love of my life.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

A Child's Prayer.


Please answer the door, Lord, the devil is knocking,
He put in my head things I don’t want to hear.
Please peep round the door while I hide behind you,
And tell him to clear off, because You are here.

I want to just think about all that is lovely
All the wonderful things that You do.
The devil is mean, nasty, and ugly,
He’s not to get in or he’ll make me mean too

You know that I love You and You love me too,
And the devil just hates both of us,
So if we stick together as close as we can
Then he can’t get in between us.

Just you and I Lord can win my fights
I know that You already have won
You beat Satan at Calvary there on the cross
So why is he being so dumb?

He thinks I’ll forget that You gave me a sword
And a shield and a breastplate and stuff
That they’re all in a cupboard and hidden away.
I suppose I don’t use them enough.

But if You’re beside me when the fight starts
You’ll help me to fight like a ‘pro’
So I’ll go to the door by myself, with Your sword
And tell Satan just where he can go!.

WB July 08.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

God's Creatures.

God’s Creatures

I can hear the birds chirping gladly outside
And the sun is shining again
The clouds have rolled off and the wind has died down
And now there’s no sign of the rain.

It’s funny how weather can alter the way
You feel about any old thing
The sun makes you happy, the rain makes you sad
While the wind makes a mess with its wings

Well, I’m sure that the birds must just love the wind
When it blows soft, and gentle, and warm
They can float way up high on a thermal or two
As they hold out their feathery arms

Just think how they must ache, their wings I mean
After flapping and beating so hard
To get up off the ground or escape from the cat
Or fly clear of the junk in our yard

Then there are the creatures that crawl on the ground
Not for them an escape to the sky
When things get unpleasant the best they can do
Is to try and find somewhere to hide

If you were a beetle and thought you would hide
Just under a leaf or a twig
How awful for you if I came in the yard
And marched straight over to where you were hid

I wouldn’t have meant to stand right on your head
Or tip rain off a leaf on your bed
But it might have been better if you could have crawled
Up the trunk of a big tree instead.

We all are God’s creatures and maybe He knows
What weather we each like the best
Like warm sun, not too hot, some rain, not too much
And the wind has to be at its best.

For how will the birds feel if there is a wind
That threatens to tumble their nest
As it clings to the tree tops that sway in the breeze
And strikes fear into each little breast.

And think of the crawlies that creep round about
When the rain starts to fall on the ground
Why, in no time the drops that collect on the leaves
Make a flood that a bug could just drown

So if you feel sad that the weather is bad
Remember that God cares for you
Even more than the creatures that live round about,
So spare just a thought for them too.

My Angel





I’ve lost my guardian angel, God
I think he’s gone away.
I ran and hid, that’s all I did,
So he would come and play.

How do I know he’s gone, God ?
Well, I just fell on the stairs,
And then a box dropped on my thumb.
I should have said my prayers,

To thank you for my angel, God.
I know You really care
And want me safe and sensible.
My angels’ here to share

My life, my fun, my joy in things,
And keep You in the loop
But now I fear he’s gone away
I don’t know where to look.

Do You think he’s gone to bed ,God?
Was he tired of my games ?
If I go up early will I find
Him sitting in a daze ?

I’ll go up to bed right now, God,
And I’ll say all my prayers.
I’ll thank you for my parents
Before they come upstairs.

If they come up too soon, God,
I know they’ll make a list
Of Aunts and Uncles, brothers too
And things they can’t resist

To add to my requests, God
So You’ll never get to rest
But when You do, please don’t forget
The angels round my bed.

Monday, October 20, 2008

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk. Hosea 11.v3.

What a wonderful love letter from God is the book of Hosea and how we pain our Creator and Saviour when we turn away from Him.

I do not intend to go into the book of Hosea now, or indeed the whole of Chapter 11, which is a very emotive one.

I just want to ponder on the implications of these few words, ‘it was I who taught Ephraim to walk’.

Those of you who are fathers yourselves and taught your sons and daughters to walk, as fathers do, with such loving care, will remember the closeness and the bonding which took place between you and your beloved child during those months of their young lives.
How your heart would almost burst with pride and affection when they took their first steps alone, and stumbled towards you, while you waited, arms outstretched, to catch them.
Those times , while they can never return, will remain in your heart for ever.

Those days ended, and your little one became proficient at walking alone.
They no longer needed, and probably didn’t want to run into your protective arms any longer. They thought they were all grown up and didn’t need you standing ahead of them ‘just in case’.
I am sure the time came when they did fall, and ran sobbing into your arms, crying ‘Daddy, Daddy!’, and yes, you would have been there to lift them up in your arms and comfort them, saying, “It’s alright, Daddy’s here.”

This is what our Father God does for us. He watches our progress, longs to have us near to Him, and grieves over us as a loving Father when we stumble and fall, over, and over again.

May we always remember that He, who taught us to walk, remains loving and faithfully close, holding us in His hands as long as we don’t turn away, or worse still, walk right away from Him.

W.B. Oct 2008.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Praise Pot

There is an old brown pot on my dresser that used to contains sweets (lollies) for visiting children, then grandchildren.
We don’t use it any more, they are either too grown up or on diets, so it’s time it was used for something else.

That something else, just occurred to me today.
I don’t give God enough praise for all the blessings he has given me.
Not just the big ones, like my family and my friends, my home, my health, my senses, (well what sense I still have left. That is a moot point.), but the little blessings and sweet surprises He sends at the most unexpected times.

So I have cut up strips of paper, and every time I receive a blessing or I think of one I have already received, I will write it down and put it in the Praise Pot.
On my ‘blue’ days, and we all get them, don’t we? I will tip the pot out and read them all and then I will be praising again in no time.

I haven’t decided what to do when the pot is full. You can help me with suggestions nearer the time.

I’ve two praises in the pot already. The first one is that Jesus loves me. That is a miracle in itself.
The second one is for loving friends. I just couldn't do without them.

Now I’m rambling on.

I’ll talk to you all again when my pot is filling up!
God bless you.