attitude

SAYING ‘I LOVE YOU’ WITHOUT USING MANY WORDS

(June 10, 2024) Richard Winter shares ‘food for thought’…

Imagine this setting…
Great restaurant, soft music, your intended seated beside you, his hand reaching over and touching you, and voice filled with passion says, ‘I love you.’

Or settings like these…

  • Men bonding with men who jovially say, ‘Man, I love you. What a game!’ after a great football match.
  • Women doing something similar when they go shopping with another woman.

Ever looked for such settings in the New Testament?  They’re not to be found!

  • Jesus never said, ‘I love you’ to the woman at the well.
  • Nor is He recorded as saying, ‘I love you’ to the disciples.
  • Rather He asked them if they loved Him!
  • He demonstrated caring love to many!
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THE LORD’S PRAYER – Part 1: ‘GOD’S DOMINION’

(June 06, 2024) Dr Jim McClure teaches… and challenges –

How good is your prayer life?

I guess that for most of us prayer is lower on the ladder of importance in our lives than we would be prepared to admit.

We excuse ourselves by thinking that we are so busy that other urgent things make demands on us and, sadly, prayer is set to one side to be attended to later.

Many churches place an emphasis on the importance of their regular prayer meetings and sometimes Christian organisations plan citywide, and even nationwide, prayer meetings and Christians are encouraged to commit to them. However, valuable and important such gatherings may be, the number of participants is ultimately not the determining factor in the effectiveness of prayer.

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MARY – HEART OF AN UNLIKELY HERO!

(December 20, 2023) Richard Winter challenges…

You can be anywhere in the world and know the essentials of the Christmas story. The basics are –

  • Mary, merely a young girl engaged to be married to Joseph, is pregnant.
  • Her explanation? It’s a miracle from God.
  • Trouble explodes! Joseph wants out and plans a quiet divorce.
  • God sends an angel to Joseph revealing it’s all OK – so go ahead with the marriage.
  • This baby is His and will be the Saviour of Israel and the world!

Thought: Aren’t you impressed with those ‘Christmas-centred’ angelic messengers? Boy, were they busy! There was Mary, visited by the archangel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-35), Joseph (Matthew 1:20), and the astounded shepherds (Luke 2:8-15).

But let’s think about Mary… though she has always been considered one of the heroes of the Christian faith, I think it’s safe to say she was an unlikely hero. She just doesn’t exactly fit a hero profile. Why unlikely? you might ask.

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ARE YOU BEARING FRUIT IN OLD AGE?

(November 11, 2023) Carol Round encourages to appreciate each new day…

‘Age isn’t a number, it’s an attitude.’

It’s the most famous quote about aging. Scientific evidence supports that. Researchers from Yale and Miami University agree that people who choose to see growing older as something positive live seven and a half years longer than those who don’t.

I will be 70 tomorrow. My mind cannot grasp that number, but my body says otherwise. Instead of complaining about my aches and pains, I choose to thank God for my health. I may not be able to do the things I used to, but I know God isn’t through with me yet.

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BLOW ME DOWN! ONE NEVER KNOWS WHO THINKS WHAT ABOUT US

(August 30, 2023) Robert and Maureen McQuillan share…

‘One never knows who thinks what about us’ was a longish title… then we felt to add spinach-loving Popeye’s famous exclamation, ‘Blow me down!’  

This article is really about that initial title, but some events came about that had us add the exclamation.

First ‘Blow me down’
We’ve always had confidence in our daughter Wendy’s ability to achieve in life, and to encourage others, whether friends or business  associates. She has a good heart, common sense, cares for others and has the right attitude.

Naturally we encouraged Wendy to trust the Lord to help her in all this. And she has achieved much, and been an encouragement to others. But… she never talks about her accomplishments, no bragging.

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GOTCHA!

(July 28, 2023) Richard Winter challenges attitudes…

What do a lawyer and two women and their kitchen have to do with we Christians?

Most of us would probably say, ‘Not much – I don’t really know such folk.’ Well, let me teach some principles about these three…

Let’s take the lawyer first
Ever had a dialogue with a lawyer? The ones I had left me a little intimidated as the impression was I didn’t know much about the law!

Jesus was once questioned by a lawyer, not like a modern-day lawyer but an expert in the laws of Moses.

And the question he asked Jesus was a gotcha one, like many lawyers do, perhaps the Perry Mason type suddenly asking a gotcha such as… ‘And by the way, where were you on the night of the 14th at 11.00pm?’

Luke 10:25 records the incident with Jesus this way… ‘A certain lawyer stood up, testing Jesus, saying, “Teacher,  what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”’

Now that’s a good question… but the wrong motivation by this guy! He didn’t ask it because he really wanted to know, he said it because he wanted to test Jesus. Eg… ‘I’m going to tempt him. I want to see if he can come up with an answer to this.’

Gotcha question
So… good question, bad motivation. A gotcha question. Did he really mean what do ‘I, myself’ need to do to inherit eternal life? No! The CJB version reads that he ‘… stood up to try and trap him…’

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PAUL’S SOUND ADVICE

(May 15, 2023) Dr Jim McClure shares on 1 Timothy 6… 

One of our favourite shows TV shows is the old British comedy series, As Time Goes By (1992 – 2005). In various ways it demonstrates how different life was then compared to today.

But can you imagine what life would have been like 2000 years ago – no cars, trains, planes, TVs, mobile phones, computers or credit cards! Basic comforts would have been minimal, food scarce and dining with friends at a local café or restaurant not even a consideration. There were no government welfare schemes, health benefits, or public schools.

In Jesus’ day, houses were generally very small, very basic with dirt floors, and extended families often lived under the same roof. At night oil lamps provided the lighting. Life was very difficult and often very brutal. The poor were frequently exploited and intimidated.

And this was the world into which the early church was born. The first Christians were confronted with the enormous challenge of impacting that world for God.  That was what Jesus was saying when He preached, ‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden’ (Matthew 5:14).  If we are followers of Jesus Christ, truly Christians, there must be some visible evidence in the way we live and in the values we hold.  The challenge Jesus gave 2000 years ago continues – to us today in 2023.

Personality challenge!
Of course, meeting that challenge becomes very personal! It requires us individually to address our own characters and to ask ourselves, ‘What do I need to change in my attitudes and behaviour?’ When we become Christians, we are forgiven but we are not made perfect human beings! In His relationships with others Jesus gave us an example to follow.  Sometimes we forget that! Jesus’ ministry and mission was not just about securing for us personal salvation. It was also particularly about changing the world for good and for God. Who we are and the way we live has a significant role to play in that challenge.

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GOD IS A BIG GOD… SO KEEP IT SIMPLE

(September 27, 2022) Maureen McQuillan shares and challenges…

Okay, Robert wrote about me this month… Now I’ll write about him!

In his article Robert admitted to doing something stupid. Here’s another example… I needed a towel rail fitted upstairs. A simple towel rail, mind you, but a frustrated Robert (I know… he’s human!) was having difficulty with this job and, a bit edgy, finally gave up.

Finding me downstairs, he reported – no, moaned: ‘How am I ever going to get those two rails into their holding brackets and fitted to the wall! I’ve followed the instructions… there’s no leeway I can manipulate everything into position.’ 

God assists
Instantly I saw the simplicity of the solution to his ‘problem.’ (Or rather God the Holy Spirit was assisting by showing me the answer, one which Robert had missed). And so I casually shared it with him.

Well, Robert just stared at me. I, naturally, didn’t say a thing! Then, wordless, he snucked off back upstairs. A few minutes later he was back with me all smiles and happy, job completed. I smiled too and we laughed at the simplicity of it all.

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DIVINE, NOT FAITH, HEALING!

(February 14, 2022) Robert McQuillan shares…

Personally, I strongly believe in God’s power to heal whoever calls on Him when sickness strikes.

It used to be common that Christians testified on Sundays about having asked God for healing and how He had answered them! They wanted to share how trusting God and His word had resulted. But for many years trendy music, overdone announcements and tithing mini-sermons have been more important!

Today, in many churches it’s a rarity to invite slickly people to respond to an altar call for prayer in respect of needed miracles.

Don’t church leaders believe in the power of God’s word regarding healing? Have they forgotten how to pray with confidence? Has the great truth of divine, not faith, healing by God’s power been forgotten, no longer understood?

Positive power words
Maureen and I delight to pray positively for sickly folk, having experienced several divine healings – and miracles – ourselves over a lifetime.

Example: Years ago we were asked to teach a church camp about healing and praying for the sick. But… Friday I suddenly developed a severely sore throat, and couldn’t talk.

Now I could have phoned and hoarsely whispered a negative ‘I can’t come Saturday.’ But I didn’t. Instead we stayed overnight enroute with good friends who made me a cosy bed on a comfortable couch before a roaring log fire. Feeling so ill, I enjoyed a hot drink, sucked honey and relaxed.

Appreciating the comforts, I prayed positively to God, asking in Jesus’ name that He graciously heal me, confirming that I trusted Him to restore me. Even claimed a healing scripture that means so much to me… 1 Peter 2:24b: ‘By His wounds (stripes) you have been healed,’ and endeavoured to fall asleep.

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STRUGGLING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT?

(October 14, 2021) Mama Lava shares great hope…

This post is going to write itself because I write it with tears running down my cheeks!

I had awakened with happy expectation. This was the day I had been looking forward to for quite a while because it had been entirely set aside for the enjoyment of a long-awaited opportunity. It had been circled on the calendar of my heart and anticipated with a child-like giddiness.

But… it quickly became apparent that the day wasn’t going to happen according to plan. Disappointment surged in, uninvited and unruly.

God could also change the circumstance… but I didn’t want to be further disappointed if he chose not to. I wanted him to change my attitude. Quite frankly, that day was simply the most recent in a string of struggles with disappointment. I wanted God to show me the lesson I had been needing to learn so that these kinds of situations would not hinder me anymore.

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