God’s favour and protection

GREAT GRACE— AND A GREAT SAVIOUR!

(July 28, 2025) Robert and Maureen McQuillan share…

As most of you know we like relaxing by watching old movies… especially these days as I (Robert) can’t do much as a result of that very bad fall I had early this month (Thanks to the many friends who are praying for me.. and Maureen, my first-aid specialist ‘nurse!’).

Yes, just to please me Maureen still lets me suggest watching old John Wayne movies! (and yes, she enjoys them too!). And yes, since I was a kid the Duke has been ‘my hero’… even beyond Batman, Flash Gordon, Cagney and Bogart.

Discovery
But… better still, and more meaningful, both Maureen and I at a very young age, five or six, discovered the greatest ‘hero’— Jesus Christ! And recently in my taking it easy to recover, we discovered the brilliant Rosemary Siemens singing those precious old hymns that so many Christians and churches don’t sing or even know these days! And what a precious gentle voice and her mastery of integrated violin playing. We’ve been so blessed!

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SURROUNDED BY GOD’S FAVOUR!

(February 06, 2025) Norman and Margaret Moss share another precious meditation…

On the wall of my grandmother’s kitchen there was a large poster advertising Pears’ Soap. 

It was a picture of age and poverty. An extremely old couple in poor clothing sitting facing one another across an almost bare table. Yet their wrinkled faces conveyed happiness and love. Between them was a large mixing bowl full of soapy water, and the man was using his clay pipe to blow a large bubble. Other bubbles were floating to the ceiling  and the wife was watching him with loving delight.  

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TURN CURSES INTO BLESSINGS!

(September 12, 2024) Sam Selva Raj shares concerns and strongly challenges readers…

Deuteronomy 30:19-20a is a very clear declaration by God: ‘I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days!’

  • ‘Set before you’ indicates the choice is ours regarding enjoying the blessings of God. Blessing is Hebrew berakah — ‘valley of blessings.’
  • Even the Oxford Dictionary defines ‘blessing’ as God’s favour and protection. And ‘curse’ as something that causes harm or evil. In other words a cause of trouble and unhappiness.
  • Verse 19 clearly presents the challenge of two ways in which to live — the right way and the wrong.
  • Going God’s way brings blessings; the wrong way disaster… curses!
  • In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus issued this warning: ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’
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